1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin led 136 laps and held off Kyle Larson down the stretch to win the Wurth 400, his third victory of the season.
“As I like to say after a win,’” Hamlin said, “‘I just beat your favorite driver.’ I don’t know who your favorite driver is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not me.”
2. Kyle Larson: Larson won Stage 2 at Dover and chased Denny Hamlin for the lead late, to no avail. Larson settled for the runner-up spot and still leads the Cup points standings.
“I plan to run the Indy 500-Coca-Cola 600 double on May 26th,” Larson said. “Tony Stewart is the only driver to successfully complete all 1,100 miles, and I believe he lost the equivalent of my body weight in doing so.”
3. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished fifth at Dover.
“Things have been quiet at the Dawsonville Pool Room since I won at Texas,” Elliott said. “When I won there a few weeks ago, it snapped a 42-race winless streak. That siren at the Pool Room hasn’t gone off a lot lately, so when it does, it’s pretty alarming.”
4. William Byron: Byron was strong early at Dover, but his day was derailed when his car fell off the jack on a lap 182 pit stop. The 24-second stop dropped Byron well back in the field and he finished 33rd.
“That’s what you call a real ‘drop off’ in performance,” Byron said. “And that wasn’t the end of my bad luck. I was collected in an accident on Lap 329 that ended my day. At that point, our chances of winning were basically done. And if anyone knows what it’s like to be on the outside looking in, it’s Jerry Falwell Jr.”
5. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex won Stage 1 at Dover and finished third.
“Unlike some races this season,” Truex said, “this was an exciting race. This race had everything one would expect from a NASCAR race: exciting racing, lead changes, crucial accidents, and Jimmie Johnson finishing at least one lap down. It also had something you wouldn’t expect, which is both a Family Dollar and a Dollar Tree car in the same race.”
6. Tyler Reddick: Reddick came home 11th at Dover.
“‘Miles The Monster’ is one of the most iconic trophies in motorsports racing,” Reddick said. “It’s also taller than me.”
7. Ty Gibbs: Gibbs finished 10th at Dover as Joe Gibbs Racing placed three cars in the top 10 as Denny Hamlin took the win.
“Toyota has won five races this season,” Gibbs said. “Chevrolet has won six. And Ford? They like to think they’re zeroing in on a win.”
8. Alex Bowman: Bowman finished eighth in the Wurth 400.
“Corey Heim drove the No. 43 Toyota for the injured Erik Jones,” Bowman said. “He’s not to be confused with Corey Haim, because he’s dead.”
9. Ryan Blaney: Blaney finished seventh in the Wurth 400, earning his fifth top 10 of the season.
“Ford is still looking for its first win this season,” Blaney said. “Currently, ‘Ford’ stands for ‘Feeling Ourselves Really Desperate.’”
10. Ross Chastain: Chastain finished 12th at Dover.
“I’ve realized that Indy Car is a lot like NASCAR,” Chastain said. “If you get caught cheating in Indy Car, you do the same thing you would do in NASCAR, and that’s deny you even knew you were cheating.”
With drafting help from two Toyota teammates as team owner Michael Jordan watched atop the pit box, Tyler Reddick rose to the occasion and raced his way to a wild overwhelming NASCAR Cup Series victory in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 21, amid a final lap accident that knocked pole-sitter Michael McDowell out of race-winning contention.
The two-time Xfinity Series champion from Corning, California, led five times for 13 of 188 scheduled laps. Reddick started 18th and kept his No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE intact while working closely with his Toyota teammates amid the draft and the three-wide packed action towards the front.
Despite losing four of his Toyota teammates, including team owner Denny Hamlin and 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, to a multi-car wreck with 33 laps remaining amid a late cycle of green flag pit stops Reddick cycled into the lead during the caution period. Drafting support from Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs kept him in contention for a 27-lap dash to the finish as he squared off against Ford competitors Michael McDowell and Brad Keselowski.
Then, on the final lap, Reddick, who led the penultimate lap by a hair over McDowell initially lost ground to McDowell and Keselowski amid the draft. But with two corners remaining, he capitalized on a swerved move by McDowell entering the frontstretch resulting in McDowell spinning in the middle of the track and igniting a multi-car wreck. Reddick was able to zip by both Keselowski and Noah Gragson to cross the finish line by two-tenths of a second ahead of Keselowski and capture his first Cup Series victory of the 2024 season along with his first at Talladega and of the season for 23XI Racing.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, April 20, Michael McDowell captured his second Cup Series pole position of the season and his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 182.022 mph in 52.609 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Austin Cindric, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 181.739 mph in 52.691 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric battled for the lead in front of two packed lanes through the first two turns before they navigated through the backstretch. With the field behind still running in two tight-packed lanes through the final two turns and back to the tri-oval, McDowell managed to lead the first lap by a hair over Cindric.
During the next four laps, the field fanned out to three tight-packed lanes as McDowell and Cindric battled and swapped the lead. Amid the battles, Martin Truex Jr. mounted a charge from the outside lane with drafting help from Bubba Wallace and Daniel Hemric while McDowell started to muscle ahead on the inside lane.
Meanwhile, Kyle Larson, who was not allowed to post a qualifying lap on Saturday due to unapproved adjustments involving his roof rails to his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and was assessed a drive-through penalty on pit road during the opening lap, was mired at the rear of the field and trailing by a distance with no drafting help.
Over the next five laps, Truex, Hemric and BJ McLeod each led at least a lap while the pack of 37 competitors fanned out to three lanes as they navigated around the superspeedway venue to take advantage of the draft.
Through the first 15 scheduled laps, Chase Briscoe assumed the lead from Hemric on the outside lane amid the tight-packed racing before Justin Haley carved his No. 51 Parts Plus Ford Mustang Dark Horse to the front as he challenged Briscoe for the top spot during the proceeding laps. Despite Briscoe blocking Haley and briefly stalling his momentum through the backstretch by Lap 16, Haley switched to the inside lane and continued to battle Briscoe before he assumed the top spot by Lap 18. Truex, however, would join the battle and lead by the Lap 20 mark. By then, Larson was lapped by the field.
By Lap 25 and with the field still fanned out to three tight-packed lanes, Truex was ahead with the lead by a hair on the outside lane as Haley was leading the draft on the inside lane and Briscoe was mired as the lead competitor in the middle lane. As Haley, Truex and Briscoe battled against one another for the lead within the draft, Truex continued to muscle ahead and lead the proceeding laps by the Lap 30 mark.
At the Lap 35 mark, Truex, who led eight of the previous 10 laps, was ahead by a hair over McLeod and Briscoe while he had teammates Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin drafting him through the middle lane. McLeod, however, would have Daniel Suarez pushing him on the outside lane as he remained in contention for the lead before Suarez bailed on him by Lap 37, allowing Truex to muscle ahead while Briscoe tried to mount another challenge on the inside lane. McLeod would then receive drafting help from Chase Elliott by Lap 40 to muscle back ahead on the outside lane, with Truex and Briscoe remaining in the middle and inside lanes, respectively.
Then on Lap 40, McLeod went up against the outside wall entering Turn 3, and fell off the pace as the entire field zipped by him. McLeod then pitted as the race remained under green flag conditions. By then, Briscoe had muscled his way back to the lead on the inside lane while Truex fought back on the middle lane. Meanwhile, Elliott was trying to mount a charge from the outside lane and received a push from Ryan Preece through the backstretch to challenge the front-runners for the lead.
Not long after on Lap 41, Indiana natives Briscoe and Haley peeled off the track to pit under green. Another wave of competitors, mainly Chevrolet competitors led by Suarez and rookie Zane Smith, pitted by Lap 42 before another led by Alfredo and Gragson pitted. During the latest wave, Hamlin, who was trying to slam on the brakes to enter pit road under pit road pace, got loose and ran into the side of John Hunter Nemechek before he spun his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry XSE on pit road. The race, however, remained under green as Hamlin proceeded to his pit stall while another wave of competitors led by Elliott and Larson, who was a lap down, pitted. By then, Zane Smith and Suarez were penalized for speeding on pit road.
On Lap 45, the final wave of competitors led by Shane van Gisbergen pitted under green. Once the pit stops cycled through, Elliott emerged as the new leader ahead of teammate William Byron, Kyle Busch, Cindric and Harrison Burton. During the pit stops, Joey Logano was penalized for speeding on pit road as Briscoe would have to pit for a second time to address a flat tire on his entry.
By Lap 50, Cindric, who assumed the lead from Elliott two laps earlier, was still leading ahead of Elliott, Burton, Byron and Ryan Blaney as the top 30 competitors were separated by a second. As Cindric and Elliott battled for the lead in front of two packed lanes during the proceeding laps, Larson was running in front of teammate Elliott as he was trying to remain on the lead lap following his opening lap penalty.
Just past the Lap 55 mark, Cindric and Elliott battled for the lead in front of two packed lanes, with Cindric having Harrison Burton drafting him on the outside lane. Elliott was still running behind teammate, Larson, and had teammate Byron drafting him on the inside lane.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Cindric edged Elliott by a hair to claim his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Elliott ended up second followed by teammate Byron, Blaney and Kyle Busch while Burton, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman were scored in the top 10. Meanwhile, Larson, who was lapped by Cindric at the start/finish line, was the recipient of the free pass as he returned to the lead lap category.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Cindric pitted while Brad Keselowski and Anthony Alfredo remained on the track. Not long after, the following names that included Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chris Buescher, Keselowski, John Hunter Nemechek, Logano, Corey LaJoie, Truex and Larson would pit again for extra fuel to their respective entries.
The second stage period started on Lap 66 as Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Busch briefly muscled ahead exiting the frontstretch until Blaney fought back on the inside lane through the first two turns. As the field started to fan out to three lanes, Blaney received a draft from teammate Cindric and Burton to clear Busch and muscle ahead of the pack through the tri-oval and back to the start/finish line for the following lap.
Then on Lap 68 and as the field continued to battle through three packed lanes, Shane van Gisbergen mounted a drafting charge to the front followed by Austin Dillon from the outside lane. After clearing both Busch and Blaney, Dillon then bailed on van Gisbergen as he moved his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in front of teammate Busch’s No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. But van Gisbergen fought back on the outside lane as he picked up Alfredo as his new drafting partner. Alfredo then bailed on van Gisbergen on Lap 70 as he led while van Gisbergen was shoved out of the draft as he and his No. 16 Wendy’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 slowly drifted to the rear of the field. Meanwhile, Noah Gragson carved his way into the lead during the following lap as he was pursued by John Hunter Nemechek and while Larson was battling Alfredo for third place.
Just past the Lap 75 mark, Nemechek assumed the lead in his No. 42 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE on Lap 72, was leading ahead of Alfredo and a bevy of competitors charging strong amid a scattered, three-wide pack. Despite being pressured by Gragson, Alfredo and Corey LaJoie during the proceeding laps, Nemechek would retain the top spot by Lap 80 as 36 of 38 starters were running within two seconds of one another amid the draft.
Through Lap 85, Nemechek continued to lead ahead of Gragson and LaJoie while Chris Buescher was trying to mount a charge on the outside lane with drafting help from Gilliland. As Alfredo occupied the inside lane amid a three-wide battle within the pack, the top-36 competitors were separated within three seconds while Nemechek remained in front of Gragson with the top spot.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94 and with the field running tight in three packed lanes, Hamlin overtook Nemechek for the lead while Cody Ware, Buescher, Gragson, Gilliland, Truex, LaJoie, Preece and Larson were scored in the top 10 ahead of Busch, Austin Dillon, van Gisbergen, Wallace, Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Alfredo, Logano, Byron, Bell, Elliott and Hemric. Meanwhile, Briscoe, who pitted by himself under green earlier, trailed the lead pack by 41 seconds.
Six laps later, Buescher drafted his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse into the lead followed by Ford teammates Gilliland, Preece, Logano and Gragson while van Gisbergen, who led on Lap 98 and battled Buescher during the following lap, was shuffled out of the draft for a second time. Meanwhile, Larson occupied sixth place ahead of LaJoie, Wallace, Austin Dillon and Busch as Briscoe was lapped by the field during the following lap.
Then on Lap 102, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as the first wave, mainly Ford competitors led by Buescher, pitted primarily for fuel. Another wave, mainly Chevrolet competitors led by Austin Dillon and Busch, pitted during the following lap. During the second pit sequence, trouble struck for LaJoie, who spun his No. 7 Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 after running into standing water on the asphalt while exiting pit road. Despite LaJoie’s spin, the race remained under green flag conditions as Logano led a wave of 12 competitors who had yet to pit. Logano and Hamlin would then battle for the top spot by Lap 106.
On Lap 110, Hamlin was leading ahead of teammate Bell, Logano, Cindric and teammate Truex as the top-12 competitors, all of whom had not yet pitted, continued to run on the track while the next wave of competitors comprising those who pitted led by Byron trailed by 33 seconds. Another lap later, Hamlin led a wave of Toyota competitors to pit road under green while the rest, including, Logano, Cindric, Blaney and Josh Berry remained on the track. During the pit stops, Bell was penalized for speeding on pit road as Logano, Berry, Blaney and Cindric pitted by Lap 112. Upon the completion of the pit stops, Blaney was penalized for speeding on pit road as Logano and Cindric managed to blend back onto the track and regain the pace with the field that enabled them to contend towards the front.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 120, Logano fended off a late challenge from Larson to capture his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Teammate Cindric edged Larson at the start/finish line to claim second followed by Austin Dillon and Ross Chastain while Reddick, Buescher, Elliott, Ryan Preece and Ty Gibbs were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Logano returned to pit road for service while the rest including Keselowski, LaJoie, Briscoe, van Gisbergen, Truex, Gibbs and Alfredo pitted. Following the pit stops, Logano exited pit road first ahead of Larson, Cindric, Chastain, Dillon, Elliott, Reddick, Busch, Buescher and Bowman. Shortly after, Keselowski would lead the rest of the competitors who pitted during the caution period as Logano cycled back into the lead.
With 62 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Logano and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Logano and Chastain battled dead even for the lead as Logano had Team Penske teammate Cindric drafting him while Chastain had Chevrolet teammate Kyle Busch drafting him. Chastain then muscled away from Busch before moving in front of Logano and Cindric in the draft by the following lap just before the rest of the field caught back up to the top-four leaders. Shortly after, Chastain and Logano returned to battling dead even for the lead in front of two packed lanes with 60 laps remaining.
With 56 laps remaining, the caution returned after Elliott ran into the rear of Haley that sent Haley into Bell’s No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE as Bell went back up the track and hit the outside wall head-on in Turn 3 while barely dodging Elliott as Briscoe, Blaney and Zane Smith were also involved. During the caution period, a majority of the field led by Logano pitted while the rest led by Alfredo remained on the track. Once Alfredo and others pitted with 50 laps remaining, Berry cycled into the lead.
During the following restart with 49 laps remaining, where teammates Berry and Gragson occupied the front row, Berry and Gragson battled dead even against their Overstock.com-sponsored Ford Mustang Dark Horses for a full lap. The following lap, Hemric ignited a charge from the outside lane as he assumed the lead in his No. 31 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with drafting help from Chastain before McDowell received a push from Austin Dillon to muscle ahead, clear Hemric and return to the lead.
With 40 laps remaining and with a majority of the field migrating to the outside lane, McDowell was leading ahead of teammate Gilliland, Keselowski, Busch and Cody Ware while Gragson, Chastain, van Gisbergen, Suarez and Larson were running in the top 10 ahead of Bowman, Elliott, Stenhouse, Buescher, Berry, Alfredo, Logano, Hemric, Burton and LaJoie.
Three laps later, a bevy of Toyota competitors pitted under green, mainly for fuel. As the Toyota competitors managed to blend back onto the track and remain on the lead lap, McDowell retained the lead over Gilliland, Keselowski, Berry, Hemric, Gragson and a bevy of competitors running two by two in a tight pack with 35 laps remaining.
Then with 33 laps remaining, the caution flew after Bubba Wallace, who was running in a seven-car Toyota line towards the rear of the field upon pitting under green and trying to regain ground of the lead pack, got Erik Jones’ No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE loose in Turn 3 that resulted with Jones getting turned and sent head-on into the outside wall as Wallace and John Hunter Nemechek also piled into him before Nemechek came back the track and clipped Hamlin as Hamlin also wrecked against the wall while Reddick, Truex and Gibbs escaped the carnage.
During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by McDowell returned to pit road for fuel while the rest including Carson Hocevar, Reddick, Truex and Gibbs remained on the track as McDowell exited off of pit road first from the first pit stall. Hocevar would then pit not long after as Reddick cycled into the lead.
As the event restarted under green with 27 laps remaining, Reddick received a push from Toyota teammate Truex to rocket ahead of McDowell with the lead through the first two turns until McDowell came charging back from the inside lane with drafting help from Keselowski’s No. 6 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Reddick and McDowell battled side by side for the lead during the following lap until McDowell muscled ahead and was placed on defense as he fended off both Keselowski and Reddick for the lead in his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse with 25 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, McDowell retained the lead ahead of Keselowski, Reddick, Gragson and Berry while Truex, Gibbs, Chastain, Busch, Suarez and 20 additional competitors running within two seconds of one another trailed in a tight two by two pack.
During the proceeding laps, the battle for the lead was drawn to a side-by-side battle between McDowell and Reddick as Reddick had Toyota teammates Truex and Gibbs drafting him on the outside lane while McDowell had Ford teammates Keselowski, Gragson and Berry drafting him on the inside lane while also trying to gain control of both lanes with 15 laps remaining.
With 10 laps remaining, Reddick and McDowell continued to swap against one another for the lead and in front of two stacked lanes, with neither stepping out of the throttle nor giving an inch as they kept their respective manufacturer drafting partners lined up behind them.
During the proceeding laps and with a majority of the field continuing to run in two tight-packed lanes, McDowell started to muscle ahead from the inside lane as he was placed on defense to keep Keselowski drafting him and to stall Reddick’s momentum from the outside lane. Amid his strong defensive drive, Reddick fought back on the outside lane as he continued to challenge McDowell for the lead while a third drafting line led by van Gisbergen, who was running within the top 15, was trying to mount a charge toward the front. Gibbs and Busch would also move up to the third outside lane as McDowell held a narrow lead over both Keselowski and Reddick with two laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Reddick was leading by a hair over McDowell amid the tight two-pack formation. As the field navigated past the lapped competitor of John Hunter Nemechek through the first two turns, McDowell and Reddick continued to battle dead even through the backstretch until Keselowski drafted McDowell clear ahead of Reddick and the field with Noah Gragson trying to follow suit through Turns 3 and 4.
Then entering the frontstretch, Keselowski made a move to the outside of McDowell, but McDowell blocked Keselowski. As Keselowski crossed over back to the inside lane, McDowell did the same to make a second blocking attempt, but he got sideways after barely driving off the front nose of Keselowski. This resulted in McDowell spinning back across the middle of the track and igniting a vicious multi-car wreck that nearly collected the entire field and resulted in Corey LaJoie sliding across the outside wall on his side while also nearly turning over Josh Berry in the process and just past the finish line before his car tumbled once and came to a rest right-side up.
Amid the carnage, Reddick, who dropped to fourth entering the frontstretch, surged his No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE past both Gragson and Keselowski while barely avoiding McDowell’s spinning car through the frontstretch to claim the lead and cross the finish line in first place to score the victory just before the caution flew.
With the victory, Reddick racked up his sixth career win in the NASCAR Cup Series division, his first at Talladega and his first since winning at Kansas Speedway last September. In addition, Reddick became the sixth winner through the first 10 events on the 2024 Cup Series schedule as he also recorded the fourth victory of the season for the Toyota nameplate and the first of the season for 23XI Racing.
“Man, it’s incredible!” Reddick said on FOX. “Everyone on this No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry worked really hard today. [Things] Didn‘t really work out in that third stage for us, but we were able to fight and defend our track position. Was [that finish] crazy [fans]?! That was chaos! That’s Talladega for you. I got to give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex [Jr.]. It was just us Toyotas left and they pushed me with everything they had. Huge credit to Martin and Ty. Without those pushes, we don‘t win this race.”
The victory celebration for 23XI Racing, which marks the sixth Cup career win for the organization, was also big as team owner and NBA legend Michael Jordan was also present to celebrate in Victory Lane with Reddick, co-owner Denny Hamlin, former 23XI Racing competitor Kurt Busch and the 23XI team.
“Denny [Hamlin] keeps saying I was bad luck when I come to the track,” Michael Jordan said in Victory Lane. “Today, we proved him wrong. I think Tyler did a good job. The whole team did a good job. I’m very happy to be here to see it. Everybody tells me when we win, we can have a good celebration, but this is the first time I’ve been here. We’ve been working hard, trying to get ourselves up to where we can compete against the top guys in this sport. We’ve done a heck of a job just to be where we are and for us to win a big race like this, it means so much to me and for the effort the team has done. I’m all in. I love it. It replaces a lot of the competitiveness that I had in basketball.”
With Reddick winning the race, Keselowski ended up in second place for a second consecutive week while Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman avoided the final lap carnage to finish in the top five.
“I was getting some great pushes from Noah Gragson,” Keselowski said. “I thought the Fords were really working well together. We cleared the Toyotas there on the bottom lane and it was pretty clear that it was gonna come down to the three of us [me, McDowell and Gragson]. I backed up, Noah gave me a great push and I went to make a move on Michael [McDowell]. He covered it, went back the other way. I got another push from Noah and just nowhere to go when Michael came back down. I hate that for [McDowell]. He’s a good guy, hope he’s alright. Just kind of the way this stuff goes, right? All in all, really solid day for us, for Ford, for Castrol. Another second. It’s a solid day, but not the win we wanted. Good finishes are important, but we want wins. I could really taste it today, but it just didn’t happen.”
Anthony Alfredo piloted the No. 62 Beard Motorsports entry to a sixth-place result while William Byron, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton ended up in the top 10.
Notably, Truex ended up 11th ahead of Briscoe, Chastain, Preece and Elliott. In addition, LaJoie slid across the finish line on his side in 18th place, Larson ended up 21st in between Blaney and Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch ended up 27th in between Suarez and Shane van Gisbergen.
Meanwhile, McDowell, who led a race-high 36 laps from pole position, ended up in 31st place as he was unable to limp his wrecked race car across the finish line to complete the final lap.
“Yeah, it’s just super unfortunate,” McDowell said in the infield care center. “I just hate it for everybody on this Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang and I hate it for Brad [Keselowski] too because we did a good job of keeping those Mustang Dark Horses upfront. He did everything right. He pushed me out, I drugged back to him and I was able to get in front of him that very first time, but when I came back down, [I] just barely, barely wasn’t clear. I hate it that we didn’t make it to the finish line. We had such a fast Mustang today. It’s unfortunate. It’s been a rough few weeks, but it’s last-lap Talladega. Going for it, trying to get a win and just came up short. [I] Hate that I took a lot of guys with me, so [I] apologize to Brad and everybody that got collected in that. [I’ll] Go back and watch [the replay] and see what we could’ve done better.”
There were 73 lead changes for 23 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 21 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 10th event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 15 points over Martin Truex Jr., 22 over Chase Elliott, 24 over William Byron and 43 over Tyler Reddick.
Results.
1. Tyler Reddick, 13 laps led
2. Brad Keselowski, two laps led
3. Noah Gragson, five laps led
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5. Alex Bowman
6. Anthony Alfredo, four laps led
7. William Byron
8. Todd Gilliland
9. Daniel Hemric, eight laps led
10. Harrison Burton
11. Martin Truex Jr., 16 laps led
12. Chase Briscoe, three laps led
13. Ross Chastain, six laps led
14. Ryan Preece
15. Chase Elliott, five laps led
16. Josh Berry, three laps led
17. Carson Hocevar, one lap led
18. Corey LaJoie
19. Joey Logano, 22 laps led, Stage 2 winner
20. Ryan Blaney, one lap led
21. Kyle Larson
22. Ty Gibbs, one lap led
23. Austin Cindric, 16 laps led, Stage 1 winner
24. Cody Ware
25. Chris Buescher, six laps led
26. Daniel Suarez
27. Kyle Busch, five laps lef
28. Shane van Gisbergen, three laps led
29. Zane Smith
30. Austin Dillon
31. Michael McDowell – OUT, Accident, 36 laps led
32. BJ McLeod, one lap down, five laps led
33. John Hunter Nemechek, four laps down, 20 laps led
34. Justin Haley, four laps down, four laps led
35. Erik Jones – OUT, Accident
36. Bubba Wallace – OUT, Accident
37. Denny Hamlin – OUT, Accident, four laps led
38. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 28, and air at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.
1. William Byron: Byron was solid all day at Texas on his way to a third in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas.
“Once again,” Byron said, “my No. 24 Chevy featured the Liberty University paint scheme. I think I’m a good bet to win any race this season. So, if you have me in an office betting group, then I like your chances to win the pool, boy.’”
2. Chase Elliott: Elliott overtook Denny Hamlin for the lead on Lap 260 at Texas, then held on through two overtime restarts to take the win in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400. The win snapped a 42-race winless streak for Elliott.
“The No. 9 Camaro was amazing,” Elliott said. “And getting this win means the world to me. I really enjoy being the center of attention in Victory Circle. And in the Hooters car, that means spotlights and headlights.”
3. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin got loose battling with Chase Elliott for the lead on Lap 266 at Texas and tumbled down the order. A win or a runner-up turned into a 30th-place finish at Texas.
“I’m sure the fine folks down at the Dawsonville Pool Room were happy to see that,” Hamlin said. “I can hear them jeering me now. Luckily, my car was primarily sponsored by Yahoo, and it’s helpful when your own car tells you the kind of people you’ll be dealing with.
4. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished 14th at Texas.
“The winner of the Texas race is presented with a cowboy hat,” Truex said, “as well as the chance to look like someone who normally doesn’t wear a cowboy hat.
5. Ty Gibbs: Gibbs started second at Texas and finished 13th.
“Thankfully,” Gibbs said, “I didn’t have a wheel fall off like my front-row counterpart Kyle Larson. Kyle had a wheel fall off under caution on Lap 116. I bet he’s really disappointed in that wheel. What do you even say to a wheel that just up and quits in the middle of a race? Maybe ‘You’re putting me on.’”
6. Kyle Larson: Larson started on the pole at Texas and won Stage 1, but found trouble when he lost a wheel under caution. He fell two laps down and eventually finished 21st.
“Luckily,” Larson said, “I was able to get back on the lead laps thanks to a couple of free passes. I love free passes, and could have used a butt load of them back in the spring of 2010 to get me out of a really huge jam I was in.”
7. Ryan Blaney: Blaney suffered heavy damage when contact from Ryan Preece sent Blaney’s No. 12 Ford hard into the turn 2 wall on Lap 182 at Texas. Blaney came home 33rd, eight laps down.
“That was a clear case of Ryan-on-Ryan violence,” Blaney said. “If I was a hothead, I would have retaliated with more Ryan-on-Ryan violence. But I’m not. I’m a man of peace, and he’s a man of Preece.”
8. Bubba Wallace: Wallace finished seventh at Texas, posting his fourth top 10 of the season.
“This race was called the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400,” Wallace said. “That’s a lot of words and seems kind of redundant. Do we really need to have the word ‘auto’ more than once in an auto race?”
9. Tyler Reddick: Reddick finished fourth at Texas as the top Toyota car on the day.
“Dr. Phil was the honorary pace car driver at Texas,” Reddick said. “Just for the day, we referred to my fueler Brian Dheel as ‘Dr. Fill.’”
10. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski scored his best finish of the year with a second at Texas.
“Former legend Jimmie Johnson was back in the Cup series for the first time in a while,” Keselowski said. “And just 50 laps into the race, Jimmie spun. It’s clear that Jimmie doesn’t need to retire to take himself out of a race.”
After striving to rebound on the track following a difficult 2023 season, Chase Elliott made a triumphant return to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series division for the first time in over a year after motoring his way to win the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 14, amid two overtime shootouts.
The 2020 Cup Series champion from Dawsonville, Georgia, led three times for 39 of 276 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified 24th but implemented an early strategic move by remaining on the track during an early cycle of green flag pit stops and leading for the first time on Lap 41. An ensuing caution on Lap 50 for an on-track incident played into the favors for Elliott and the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team, where they then pitted and proceeded to claim a top-10 result and a handful of stage points during the first stage period.
Then amid a bevy of on-track chaos, caution periods and dramatic restarts, Elliott, who maneuvered his way through the chaos, was left to fend off Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain through three late-race restarts, the latter two being overtime shootouts. After Hamlin wrecked during the first restart with two laps remaining, Elliott managed to muscle ahead of Chastain during the second overtime shootout and take the white flag to start the final lap before Chastain got wrecked by William Byron, which concluded the event under caution and delivered Elliott an emotional return to the Cup Series Victory Lane for the first time both at Texas and in 42 races.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, April 13, Kyle Larson notched his third consecutive Cup pole position in recent weeks and the 250th series pole for Hendrick Motorsports after he posted a pole-winning lap at 190.369 mph in 28.366 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Gibbs, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 190.134 mph in 28.401 seconds.
Prior to the event, Kyle Busch dropped to the rear of the field in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during Saturday’s practice session. Kaz Grala and Jimmie Johnson, who also wrecked during the practice session, also dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Kyle Larson muscled ahead in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with the lead through the first two turns. With the field behind fanning out and jostling for early positions, Larson proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Ty Gibbs while Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe trailed in the top five. Larson would proceed to lead by eight-tenths of a second over Gibbs by the fifth lap mark.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Larson was leading by a second over Gibbs followed by Bell, Reddick and Briscoe while Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Martin Truex Jr. occupied 11th place ahead of teammate Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain and rookie Carson Hocevar while Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Noah Gragson, Daniel Suarez and rookie Zane Smith were running in the top 20.
Ten laps later, Larson stabilized his advantage to a second over Gibbs while Bell, Reddick and Briscoe continued to run in the top five ahead of Blaney, Byron, Cindric, Wallace and McDowell.
Just past the Lap 30 mark, Larson continued to lead by nearly a second over Gibbs as Bell, Reddick and Blaney trailed in the top five. Behind, Byron occupied sixth place ahead of Briscoe, who was running ahead of Cindric while Wallace and Hamlin were in the top 10 ahead of Bowman, McDowell, Chastain, Truex and Hocevar.
By Lap 35 and with the leader Larson starting to approach lapped traffic, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Hamlin, who was running 10th, pitted his No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry XSE. More names including Cindric, Wallace, McDowell, Truex, Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Noah Gragson pitted during the proceeding lap before the leader Larson led a bevy of front runners to pit road for service by Lap 37.
On Lap 40 and with the cycle of green flag pit stops still occurring, Gibbs, who led the previous five laps, pitted as Chase Elliott cycled into the lead. Behind, Todd Gilliland, Austin Hill and Daniel Hemric, all of whom have yet to pit, were running second to fourth, respectively, while Larson was running fourth as he was trying to cycle his way back to the front.
Then on Lap 50, the event’s first caution period flew after Jimmie Johnson, who was running 36th, got sideways and spun his No. 84 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE in Turn 4. The caution occurred as Elliott, Todd Gilliland, Hill and Hemric had yet to pit. During the caution period, select names that included Elliott, Gilliland, Hill, Wallace, Blaney, Hemric, Truex, Chastain and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. Truex would then pit for a second time to address a loose wheel along with teammate Gibbs.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 55, Larson muscled ahead from Bell to retain the lead as the field fanned out through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Reddick, Hamlin and Briscoe trailing in the top five as Byron dropped to sixth, Larson would continue to lead just past the Lap 60 mark.
Nearing the Lap 75 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Bell while Hamlin, Reddick and Briscoe continued to run in the top five ahead of Elliott, a hard-charging Blaney, McDowell, Byron and Wallace. By then, Truex was in 13th and Gibbs was mired in 21st ahead of Nemechek.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Bell settled in second ahead of teammate Hamlin, Reddick and Briscoe while Blaney, Elliott, McDowell, Byron and Wallace were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the stage break, select names led by Blaney remained on the track while the rest led by Larson pitted for service, where Truex would then manage to beat Larson off of pit road following his pit service. Amid the pit stops, Gilliland was penalized for equipment interference while Zane Smith was also penalized for removing equipment from his pit stall.
The second stage period started on Lap 88 as Blaney and Hill occupied the front row. At the start, Blaney and Hill battled for the lead through the first two turns. Blaney would then muscle his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead from Hill as Gibbs and Buescher followed suit in third and fourth, respectively, while Larson was scored in fifth place on four fresh tires. As Blaney led through the Lap 90 mark, Elliott occupied sixth place ahead of teammate Byron and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin, Truex and Bell while Larson overtook Buescher and Gibbs to boost up to third place.
At the Lap 100 mark, the caution returned when Bell, who was running 10th, snapped sideways and backed his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE into the outside wall in Turn 4. Amid Bell’s incident, a chain reaction within the middle of the field ensued as Alex Bowman got turned before he received a hard hit by John Hunter Nemechek, thus leaving all three competitors with significant damage to their respective cars. By then, Blaney was leading by a narrow margin over a hard-charging Larson while Hamlin, Gibbs and Elliott were running in the top five. In addition, Hill, who was running towards the front, had pitted his No. 33 United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry due to a steering issue, an issue that would send Hill to the garage.
During the caution period, nearly the lead lap field led by Blaney pitted for service while Gilliland remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited with the lead followed by Hamlin, Truex, Elliott, McDowell, Reddick and Chastain, respectively, as Blaney exited out of pit road in eighth place ahead of Byron and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Buescher was penalized for equipment interference.
As the event restarted on Lap 106, the field fanned out through the first two turns, where Wallace lost a bevy of spots as he went wide through the turns following contact with Gibbs. Back at the front, Larson would overtake Gilliland to reassume the lead through the frontstretch and during the following lap. Truex and Hamlin would follow suit in second and third, respectively, while Reddick and Chastain battled for fifth. Meanwhile, Larson retained the lead by nearly a second over Truex by the Lap 110 mark.
Then following another caution period that started on Lap 113 after Hocevar, who was mired in 23rd, spun in Turn 1, trouble struck for the leader Larson, who lost a right-rear wheel on the track entering Turn 1. The issue cost Larson two laps for a penalty as Hamlin cycled into the lead followed by teammate Truex, Gilliland, Reddick and Chastain.
During the following restart period on Lap 118, the field fanned out again through the first two turns as teammates Hamlin and Truex battled for the lead. Hamlin would fend off Truex to retain the lead by the Lap 120 mark, where Larson then returned following his two-lap penalty. By Lap 121, however, the caution returned after rookie Josh Berry spun his No. 4 Miner Ford Mustang Dark Horse in Turn 2 after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came across Berry’s nose, which got the latter loose, from 12th place.
With the event restarting on Lap 125, teammates Hamlin and Truex battled for the lead for a second time, with Hamlin prevailing after nearly a full lap of battle while the rest of the field behind also fanned out and jostled for positions. Behind, Ross Chastain nearly made contact with Reddick as he claimed third place followed by Gilliland while Reddick was overtaken by Gilliland, McDowell, Blaney and Elliott amid his near-contact with Chastain. Amid the battles, Hamlin retained the lead by nearly a second over teammate Truex while third-place Chastain trailed by a second in third place by Lap 130.
At the halfway mark in between Laps 133 and 134, Hamlin was leading by more than a second over Chastain, who overtook Truex for the spot, while Front Row Motorsports’ Gilliland and McDowell trailed in fourth and fifth ahead of Blaney, Elliott, Byron, Joey Logano and Reddick. Behind, Stenhouse occupied 11th place ahead of Ryan Preece, Briscoe, Erik Jones and Noah Gragson while Austin Cindric, Zane Smith, Gibbs, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski followed suit in the top 20.
A few laps later, the caution returned after Berry spun and wrecked against the outside wall in Turn 2 for a second time. Compared to his first incident, Berry’s latest incident was enough for the Tennessee native to steer his car to the garage and retire with a DNF. During the caution period, some led by Chastain remained on the track while the rest led by Hamlin and Truex pitted.
With the event restarting under green on Lap 142, Chastain and McDowell battled for the lead in front of a stacked field for nearly a full lap until the caution quickly returned after McDowell snapped sideways while running on the outside lane and backed his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang Dark Horse hard into the outside wall as the field scattered to avoid McDowell’s wrecked car. The caution enabled Larson to acquire one of his two lost laps in the process.
With 18 laps remaining in the second stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Chastain muscled his No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the lead through the first two turns while Stenhouse and Jones battled for second in front of Wallace, Keselowski, Hocevar and Hamlin. Jones would overtake Stenhouse during the following lap as Chastain extended his advantage to more than a second, all while Wallace retained fourth in front of Hocevar, Keselowski and Hamlin.
By Lap 155, Chastain continued to lead by nearly a second over Jones while Wallace, Keselowski and Stenhouse trailed in the top five. Behind, Chase Briscoe, the first competitor running on four fresh tires, was mired in ninth behind Hocevar, Harrison Burton and Blaney while Hamlin was in 10th and trying to fend off teammate Ty Gibbs for the spot.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Chastain captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Wallace, who overtook Jones for the runner-up spot earlier, settled in second followed by Blaney, Erik Jones and Briscoe while Keselowski, Burton, Stenhouse, Gibbs and Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while Reddick, Hamlin and Byron mired from 11th to 13th, respectively. In addition, Truex was mired back in 21st in between Logano and Daniel Suarez.
During the stage break, some led by Chastain pitted while the rest led by Wallace remained on the track. By then, Larson, who was the first competitor scored a lap down during the second stage’s conclusion, cycled back onto the lead lap.
With 95 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Wallace and Briscoe occupied the front row. At the start, Wallace and Briscoe battled for the lead through the first two turns until Harrison Burton stretched the battle to three lanes as he made his bid for the top spot. Then through Turns 3 and 4, the caution returned after Wallace got loose and slipped his No. 23 Columbia Toyota Camry XSE up the track, where he slid sideways as Briscoe also got sideways in his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse and was sent for a spin as both he and Wallace dropped within the leaderboard while Burton assumed the lead ahead of Reddick, Hamlin, Elliott and Zane Smith.
During the following restart with 90 laps remaining, Burton rocketed ahead and retained the lead from both Hamlin and Reddick through the first two turns. Behind, Elliott fended off Zane Smith and Byron to retain fourth in front of a stacked field while Burton was trying to fend off Reddick for the lead, but Reddick prevailed with 88 laps remaining. The caution, however, returned a lap later after Blaney, who was running 15th, spun and wrecked hard against the Turn 2 outside wall amid contact with Preece.
As the event restarted with 83 laps remaining, Reddick and Burton battled for the lead until Reddick retained the lead in front of the field. Behind, Hamlin would then move into the runner-up spot followed by Elliott, teammate Byron and Zane Smith while Burton dropped to sixth in front of Gibbs. With numerous contenders trying to aggressively carve their way back to the front amid a stacked field, Reddick retained the lead by six-tenths of a second over owner Hamlin with 80 laps remaining.
With 70 laps remaining, Reddick was leading by a second-and-a-half in his NO. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry XSE over Hamlin followed by Elliott, Byron and Smith while Gibbs, Gragson, Truex, Buescher and Stenhouse were running in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Burton, Chastain, Keselowski, Preece, Logano, Austin Cindric, John Hunter Nemechek, Gilliland and Corey LaJoie. Meanwhile, Larson was mired in 23rd in front of Kyle Busch, Wallace and Briscoe, Jimmie Johnson was in 28th behind Hocevar and Austin Dillon was mired in 30th in between Daniel Suarez and Daniel Hemric.
Ten laps later, Reddick extended his advantage to five seconds over Hamlin while Elliott, Byron and Smith continued to run in the top five, but trail by within 11 seconds. Behind, teammates Gibbs and Truex battled for sixth place in front of Stenhouse, Noah Gragson, Chastain and Jones while Logano, Keselowski, Preece and Nemechek occupied the top 15 spots.
Then with approximately 55 laps remaining, a cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Byron pitted followed by teammate Elliott and Gragson. By then, Cindric, Justin Haley and Buescher pitted before the leader Reddick pitted with 54 laps remaining along with Hamlin, Stenhouse, Smith, Gibbs and Jones. Amid the pit stops, Hamlin overtook Reddick and exited ahead of him on pit road after the latter endured a slow pit stop towards the right-rear end. With more names including Truex and Stenhouse pitting, Chastain, whose previous pit stop occurred with 99 laps remaining, was leading. Chastain would then pit with 50 laps remaining along with Larson as Joey Logano cycled into the lead.
With 40 laps remaining, Logano, who last pitted with 92 laps remaining and has yet to make another pit stop to finish, continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Keselowski followed by Preece, LaJoie and Busch while Briscoe, Suarez, Hocevar, Austin Dillon and Hemric were racing in the top 10. Behind, Reddick was running 13th ahead of Hamlin, both of whom were racing on four fresh tires, while Truex was mired towards the rear of the field after making a second pit stop under green to address a loose wheel.
A lap later, the caution flew after Nemechek snapped sideways while battling Cindric and backed his No. 42 Romco Toyota Camry XSE into the outside wall in Turn 4, which sent him into the garage area and out of the event. During the caution period, some led by Logano pitted while the rest led by Reddick remained on the track as Reddick cycled back into the lead.
Down to the final 33 laps of the event, the field restarted under green. At the start, Reddick received a push from Elliott to briefly muscle ahead of Hamlin until Elliott made his move and overtook both to assume the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Elliott leading, Hamlin settled in second ahead of Chastain while Reddick slipped to fourth in front of a multi-car battle between Byron, Keselowski, Briscoe, Preece, Suarez and Busch.
With 25 laps remaining, Elliott retained the lead by nearly a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin. Two laps later, however, Hamlin battled and overtook Elliott amid a fierce battle for the lead. Another lap later and just as Hamlin muscled ahead of Elliott entering the backstretch, Reddick, who was trying to muscle his way back to the lead, slid into the outside wall towards the backstretch and dropped from third to eighth, though the event remained under green flag conditions.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by six-tenths of a second over Elliott while Brad Keselowski, who was slowly clocking in lap times that were faster than Hamlin and Elliott, trailed in third place by seven-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, fourth-place Chastain trailed by three seconds along with teammate Suarez while Byron, Reddick, Briscoe, Preece and Logano followed suit in the top 10.
Then two laps later, the caution flew after Stenhouse, who was locked into a fierce battle with Ty Gibbs, went wide through Turns 1 and 2 before he slid his No. 47 Boost by Kroger Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 into the outside wall and spun before coming to a stop in Turn 2. During the caution period, select names including Wallace, Jones, Bell, Gragson, Burton, Truex and Jimmie Johnson pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.
Just as the event restarted under green with eight laps remaining, the caution quickly returned after Zane Smith and Larson made contact that sent Larson loose and sliding up toward the outside wall in Turn 1. At the moment of caution, Elliott managed to reassume the lead from Hamlin while Chastain, Keselowski and Byron were scored in the top five.
Then during the following restart with two laps remaining, the event was sent into overtime after Hamlin, who battled dead event with Elliott for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch, slipped sideways in between Turns 3 and 4 and spun as he backed his car into the outside wall. Amid the carnage, Elliott escaped with the lead while Chastain, Keselowski, Byron and Suarez were scored in the top five.
The start of the first overtime period did not last long as Burton and Kaz Grala wrecked in Turn 1, where Elliott fended off Chastain to retain the lead followed by Keselowski, Byron and Suarez. The start of the second overtime period generated a different outcome as Elliott and Chastain battled dead even through the first two turns and the backstretch before Elliott cleared Chastain to assume the lead and have both lanes to his control entering the frontstretch.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started amid a bevy of on-track battles, Elliott remained as the leader by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Chastain. Then in the backstretch, Byron, who charged his way up to third, turned Chastain sideways into the outside wall in the backstretch as Chastain was left spinning across the middle of the track. The incident was enough for NASCAR officials to display the caution and conclude the event under caution as Elliott, who muscled his No. 9 Hooters Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 away from the carnage, was able to coast his car back to the frontstretch and claim the checkered flag for a triumphant return to the Cup Series Victory Lane.
With the victory, Elliott, who became the sixth winner through the first nine events on the 2024 schedule, recorded his 19th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series level, his first at Texas Motor Speedway and his first since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in October 2022 as he snapped a 42-year winless drought in the process. The victory, which also snapped a one-year winless drought for Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 9 team led by championship-winning crew chief Alan Gustafson, marks the sixth of the season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the fifth for Hendrick Motorsports as Elliott placed himself in a guaranteed spot of making the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs.
During his victory celebration on the frontstretch, Elliott, who piloted his sponsor Hooters to the race win, took a moment to recognize the late Alan Kulwicki, who piloted his own-operated Hooters-sponsored entry to the 1992 Cup Series championship by beating Chase Elliott’s father, Bill, during the season-finale event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, by doing a Polish Victory Lap, Kulwicki’s on-track trademark victory celebration, across the frontstretch.
Photo by Ron Olds for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“Man, [the win] couldn’t feel any better,” Elliott, who received a chorus of cheers from the grandstands, said on FS1. “[Sponsor] Hooters has been a partner of ours for a number of years now and it’s been a dream of mine to pay respect to the late Alan Kulwicki. Driving this car to victory and being able to do a Polish Victory Lap. Just really crazy how things came full circle there in that moment. It was pretty emotional for me. [Kulwicki] beat dad [Bill Elliott] back in the day and here we are sharing his sponsor and having an opportunity to win today. Just couldn’t be more grateful for this journey and the path that hasn’t always been fun, but certainly have enjoyed working with our guys. We’ve been working really hard and really well together. We’ve enjoyed the fight together.”
Following an extensive review of the finishing order amid the final lap caution, Brad Keselowski, who is still seeking his first Cup victory since 2021 and his first as a co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, ended up in second place followed by William Byron while Tyler Reddick and Daniel Suarez ended up in the top five.
Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace rallied from their on-track incident to finish sixth and seventh, respectively, while Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and rookie Carson Hocevar ended up in the top 10.
Notably, Joey Logano ended up 11th, Ty Gibbs settled in 13th ahead of teammate Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell finished 17th, Kyle Larson came home in 21st and Jimmie Johnson finished 29th in his second Cup start of the 2024 season. In addition, Denny Hamlin settled in 30th while Ross Chastain, who was unable to limp his damaged car to the finish line, ended up 32nd with a DNF.
There were 23 lead changes for 13 different leaders. The race featured 16 cautions for 72 laps. In total, 31 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the ninth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by 18 points over Martin Truex Jr., 29 over Denny Hamlin, 33 over Chase Elliott and 39 over William Byron.
Results.
1. Chase Elliott, 39 laps led
2. Brad Keselowski
3. William Byron
4. Tyler Reddick, 37 laps led
5. Daniel Suarez
6. Chase Briscoe
7. Bubba Wallace, five laps led
8. Austin Dillon
9. Kyle Busch
10. Carson Hocevar
11. Joey Logano, 14 laps led
12. Ryan Preece
13. Ty Gibbs, five laps led
14. Martin Truex Jr.
15. Chris Buescher
16. Ty Dillon
17. Christopher Bell, one lap led
18. Noah Gragson
19. Erik Jones
20. Daniel Hemric
21. Kyle Larson, 77 laps led, Stage 1 winner
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Justin Haley
25. Austin Cindric
26. Zane Smith
27. Kaz Grala
28. Harrison Burton, seven laps led
29. Jimmie Johnson
30. Denny Hamlin, 37 laps led
31. Todd Gilliland, three laps led
32. Ross Chastain – OUT, Accident, 33 laps led, Stage 2 winner
33. Ryan Blaney, eight laps led, 17 laps led
34. John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident
35. Michael McDowell – OUT, Accident
36. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident
37. Alex Bowman – OUT, Accident
38. Austin Hill – OUT, Steering, one lap led
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, April 21, and air at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.
1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin outgunned Martin Truex, Jr. on an overtime restart and held on to win the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond, earning his second win of the season.
“As a native of Virginia,” Hamlin said, “it’s always heartwarming to race in my home state. Mostly because there’s less people booing me here than in the other states. Granted, it’s still a lot, but still less.”
2. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex dominated the latter part of the Toyota Owners 400, but a late caution flag allowed Denny Hamlin to take the lead on an overtime restart. Truex settled for second and showed his frustration by banging doors with Kyle Larson in the closing laps.
“To use an Easter analogy,” Truex said, “I’m hopping mad. But everyone knows I’m not a hothead, so the chances of this ‘Joe Gibbs Racing driver going ‘JGR’ on another driver are pretty slim. To be clear, the ‘JGR’ in that context means ‘Joey Gase Rage.’”
3. William Byron: Byron finished seventh at Richmond, recording his fourth top-10 result of the year.
“It’s not often that NASCAR races on Easter Sunday,” Byron said. “There was a time when if you would have suggested that NASCAR should race on Easter, you would have been crucified.”
4. Christopher Bell: Bell finished sixth at Richmond.
“There are so many products sponsoring NASCAR cars,” Bell said. “There’s bourbon, beer, pharmaceuticals, and even Sunny D. Mix them all together, and you get a cocktail known as the ‘Tim Richmond.”
5. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished fifth at Richmond as Hendrick Motorsports placed three cars in the top 10.
“I’m still looking for my first win since Talladega in October of 2022,” Elliott said. “While the good folks down at the Dawsonville Pool Room have plenty to say ‘Cheers’ about, I’d like to give them something to cheer about.”
6. Ty Gibbs: Gibbs finished 16th in the Toyota Owners 400, only his second finish outside the top 10 this season.
“After last week’s snorefest at COTA,” Gibbs said, “it was good to give fans an exciting race. I’ve learned to never underestimate NASCAR. They even found a way to make road course racing boring. You could call the race at COTA the ‘Brickyard 400 Of Road Course Races.’”
7. Ryan Blaney: Blaney struggled for much of the night at Richmond on his way to a 19th-place finish.
“We really didn’t bring our ‘A’ game to Richmond,’” Blaney said. “We brought a lot of other letters, like ‘S,’ ‘O,’ ‘B,’ ‘M,’ and ‘F,’ but definitely not ‘A.’”
8. Ross Chastain: Chastain finished 15th at Richmond.
“Because of moisture on pit lane,” Chastain said, “we had to have what is known as ‘uncompetitive pit stops’ early in the race. Apparently, that’s where Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. got the idea to make it an uncompetitive race until the very end.”
9. Kyle Larson: Larson was strong all night at Richmond, starting on the pole, winning Stage 1, and leading 144 laps on his way to a third in the Toyota Owners 400.
“I did everything but close the deal,” Larson said. “I had a lot of deals ‘closed’ back in the spring of 2020.”
10. Tyler Reddick: Reddick finished 10th at Richmond, posting his fourth top 10 of the year.
“My No. 45 Toyota was primarily sponsored by SiriusXM,” Reddick said. “A quick glance of a NASCAR crowd evokes a similar phrase—-‘Serious XL.’”
From starting on the pole position to racing his way to Victory Lane, William Byron rebounded from a four-race streak of not finishing in the top five to claiming his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season in the fourth annual EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, March 24.
“I feel like I made a lot of mistakes in the last 10 laps, just little micro errors and Christopher [Bell] was really fast there on the longer run,’’ Byron said on FOX. “This sport is just so hard and it’s so difficult week in and week out to show up and have fast cars. We’ve had a little bit of a rough stretch the last few weeks, but just put a lot of preparation in this past week and just thankful for the team I have around me and all the people back home as well. Just super thankful to have this opportunity. It’s just a lot of fun to win races and it’s really difficult, too. We’re gonna enjoy this one.’’
The 2024 Daytona 500 champion from Charlotte, North Carolina, led five times for a race-high 42 of 68 scheduled laps in an event where he led the field to the green flag from pole position. After leading the first 12 laps before surrendering the top spot to pit under green as part of a strategic move, Byron would cycle back to the lead on three additional occasions throughout the event, with his latest occurring on Lap 44 after he overtook Ross Chastain for the top spot.
Then after both pitting and beating Chastain off of pit road first in what would be the start of the final cycle of green flag pit stops with 24 laps remaining, Byron returned to the lead with 17 laps remaining. He would then fend off a late charge from Christopher Bell to become the first repeat winner of the 2024 season with his first victory at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 23, Byron secured his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 129.636 mph in 94.696 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Ty Gibbs, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 129.651 mph in 94.685 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that included Chris Buescher, Timmy Hill and Ryan Preece dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Byron and Gibbs battled for the lead as the field fanned out entering the first uphill turn. With Byron retaining the lead despite nearly missing the first turn, Tyler Reddick moved into the runner-up spot as he settled behind Byron while Gibbs battled teammate Christopher Bell and Corey LaJoie to retain third place. Byron would lead through a series of left and right-hand turns from Turns 2 to 9 as the field continued to fan out and jostle for early positions.
Amid the battles, Byron would continue to lead from Turn 10 to 19 as he navigated his way to Turn 20 and returned to the frontstretch to lead the first lap. By then, Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr. pitted under green after both made contact with Corey LaJoie off Turn 11.
With the field remaining under green flag conditions, Byron would retain the lead by more than a second over Reddick and continue to lead by the fifth lap mark. Behind, Ty Gibbs trailed in third place ahead of teammate Bell and Ross Chastain while Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott were scored in the top 10. By then, Harrison Burton had plummeted below the leaderboard after he got bumped and sent for a spin by Ryan Preece in Turn 1.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Byron extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Ty Gibbs followed by teammate Bell while Reddick dropped to fourth place ahead of Chastain. By then, Allmendinger was in sixth ahead of Kyle Busch and Hamlin while Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez were in the top 10.
A few laps later, green flag pit stops commenced as Reddick, Justin Haley, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Preece and Harrison Burton pitted. Amid the pit stops, Chase Briscoe served a pass-through penalty for cutting the corners in Turn 4. A multitude of names including Hamlin, Busch, Elliott and Shane van Gisbergen would pit during the proceeding laps before Byron surrendered the lead to pit on Lap 13. With Byron leading, Bell, who had yet to pit, cycled into the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 15, Bell captured his second Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Suarez trailed in second followed by Michael McDowell, Cindric, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., all of whom have yet to pit, while Byron, Gibbs, Reddick and Chastain ended up in the top 10.
Under the stage break, select names that included Suarez, Dillon, Stenhouse, Daniel Hemric, Brad Keselowski and Kaz Grala pitted while the rest led by Bell and McDowell remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 18 as Bell and McDowell occupied the front row. Bell and McDowell battled for the lead through the first uphill turn as the field fanned out. With Byron nearly making contact with Bell through the turn, the latter retained the lead entering Turn 2. Byron overtook McDowell for the runner-up spot as McDowell went wide through the first turn while Gibbs and Reddick battled for fourth place,
Bell continued to lead through a series of left and right-hand turns from Turns 2 to 9 before he navigated through a hard braking, left-hand turn in Turn 11. With Bell leading the field back to the frontstretch, Byron retained second ahead of Reddick and Gibbs while Chastain occupied fifth place in front of Larson, Busch, Elliott, McDowell and Alex Bowman.
Two laps later, Byron battled and cycled past Bell from Turns 12 to 19 to reassume the lead. By then, Wallace was trying to rally from being spun by Brad Keselowski in Turn 15. More on-track carnage would ensue during the proceeding laps as rookie Josh Berry spun in Turn 11 while Larson would then get turned in Turn 11 after he got hit by Bell just past Lap 21.
Nearing the Lap 25, Byron was leading by more than two seconds over Reddick as Gibbs, Chastain and Bell trailed in the top five. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch occupied sixth place ahead of Allmendinger, Elliott, Bowman and Shane van Gisbergen while Hamlin, Justin Haley, rookie Carson Hocevar, Buescher and Joey Logano were battling in the top 15. By then, a bevy of names including Bell and Suarez pitted while Kamui Kobayashi spun in Turn 8 after getting bumped by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who also spun amid the on-track contact with Kobayashi.
During the proceeding laps, more green flag pit stops ensued as the leader Byron and a host of names pitted, with Denny Hamlin remaining on the track to inherit the lead in his No. 11 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 30, Hamlin, who remained on the track, captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Blaney settled in second ahead of Martin Truex Jr., Todd Gilliland, Preece and Keselowski while John Hunter Nemechek, Byron, Hemric and Berry ended up in the top 10.
During the stage break, some, including the leader Hamlin, pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.
With 35 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Byron and Chastain occupied the front row. At the start, Byron and Chastain battled for the lead as the field fanned out entering the first uphill turn. Through the first turn, Byron locked his tires and went wide, allowing Chastain to overtake both Byron and Gibbs and move into the lead through the series of right and left-hand turns from Turns 2 to 9. Chastain managed to retain the lead through the final 12 turns as he led the following lap while Byron battled and overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot.
Five laps later, Chastain stabilized his advantage to within a second over Byron and nearly two seconds over Gibbs while Bowman was running fourth ahead of a battle between Elliott, Busch and Reddick for fifth. Soon after, however, Elliott was assessed a pass-through penalty for cutting the course in Turn 4. In addition, Busch spun in Turn 1 after getting hit by Bell’s No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE.
Then with 27 laps remaining, Byron made his move beneath Chastain’s No. 1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in Turn 20 and battled dead even with him through the frontstretch to reclaim the lead. Another three laps later, Byron led Chastain to pit road for pit service under green, where the former managed to exit ahead of the latter following the service.
As the laps dwindled and with each of the front-runners and the field diving to pit road for green flag service, Byron cycled back as the leader with 17 laps remaining after initial leader Truex pitted. With Byron leading, teammate Alex Bowman moved into second while Gibbs cycled to third place.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, Byron was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Bowman while Gibbs, Reddick and Bell trailed in the top five. Byron would extend his advantage to more than three seconds over teammate Bowman with 10 laps remaining as Gibbs started to gain ground on Bowman for second place.
With five laps remaining, Byron continued to lead in his No. 24 RAPTOR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 by more than three seconds over Gibbs. Meanwhile, Bell was running in third place while Bowman dropped to fourth ahead of Reddick, Allmendinger, Chastain, Buescher, Busch and Chase Briscoe.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Byron remained as the leader by more than a second over Bell, who overtook teammate Gibbs for the runner-up spot two laps earlier. Despite Bell mounting a late charge to keep Byron close within his sights, Byron hit his marks on all 20 turns smoothly for a final time as he returned to the frontstretch victorious to claim his second checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.
With the victory, Byron achieved his 12th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series, his second of the season, his first since winning the 2024 Daytona 500 and his second on a road-course venue after winning at Watkins Glen International last August. He also became the first competitor to achieve multiple Cup victories in the 2024 campaign and the fourth competitor to win a Cup event at Circuit of the Americas in the series’ four-year run at the circuit.
Byron’s Circuit of the Americas victory was also the second ever for Hendrick Motorsports and the second NASCAR win of the weekend for the organization after teammate Kyle Larson won Saturday’s Xfinity event in Austin.
Bell, who led nine laps, settled in the runner-up spot despite having a heated post-race conversation with Kyle Busch who expressed his displeasure to Bell over the contact that sent Busch for a spin.
“Obviously once I got to [Byron], it was going to be tough to pass him,” Bell said. “I just needed a couple mistakes. William has been really, really good on the road courses and he was flawless when it mattered today. Obviously, [Kyle Busch]’s very upset, which he ended up turned around. I had no intentions of turning him. I’m sure we’ll talk it out before the next race.”
Ty Gibbs tied his career-best result in third place while Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick finished in the top five. AJ Allmendinger, Chastain, Buescher, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. ended up in the top 10 in the final running order.
*Following the post-race inspection process, Justin Haley, who initially finished 17th, was demoted to 39th, dead last, due to his Rick Ware Racing entry not meeting minimum post-race weights.
There were 11 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured two cautions for four laps, both for stage break periods. In addition, 33 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the sixth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Martin Truex Jr. leads the regular-season standings by five points over Ty Gibbs, nine over Ryan Blaney, 14 over Denny Hamlin and 15 over Kyle Larson.
Results.
1. William Byron, 42 laps led
2. Christopher Bell, nine laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Ty Gibbs, one lap led
4. Alex Bowman
5. Tyler Reddick, one lap led
6. AJ Allmendinger
7. Ross Chastain, 10 laps led
8. Chris Buescher
9. Kyle Busch
10. Martin Truex Jr., two laps led
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Blaney
13. Chase Briscoe
14. Denny Hamlin, three laps led, Stage 2 winner
15. Bubba Wallace
16. Chase Elliott
17. Kyle Larson
18. Austin Cindric
19. Zane Smith
20. Shane van Gisbergen
21. John Hunter Nemechek
22. Carson Hocevar
23. Ryan Preece
24. Corey LaJoie
25. Austin Dillon
26. Todd Gilliland
27. Kaz Grala
28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
29. Kamui Kobayashi
30. Harrison Burton
31. Daniel Suarez
32. Erik Jones
33. Brad Keselowski
34. Noah Gragson, one lap down
35. Josh Berry, one lap down
36. Timmy Hill, two laps down
37. Daniel Hemric, two laps down
38. Michael McDowell – OUT, Steering
39. Justin Haley – Disqualified
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. The event is scheduled to occur next weekend on Easter Sunday, March 31, at 7 p.m. ET on FOX.
1. Kyle Larson: Larson suffered a late pit lane penalty, damaging his hopes for a high finish, but salvaged a strong fifth-place at Bristol.
“The Bristol surface really did a number on tires,” Larson said. “So, it’s all about conserving your tires, which is difficult for race car drivers who just want to go fast. We have to toe the fine line between burning rubber without burning too much rubber.”
2. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex battled to the end, but couldn’t quite catch Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin and settled for second in the Food City 500.
“I think we’re all glad we’re not racing on dirt at Bristol,” Truex said. “I think the exciting racing that took place on Sunday is concrete evidence of the surface we should race on going forward.”
3. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin led 163 laps, taking charge late and securing the win in the Food City 500, earning his first victory of the season.
“This race was all about tire management,” Hamlin said. “Luckily, I was able to manage mine best. That’s why, after the race, I requested that all queries for interviews be addressed as follows: ‘I’d like to speak to the manager.’”
4. Ryan Blaney: Blaney started on the pole and finished 16th in a wild Food City 500.
“I haven’t finished worse than 16th all year,” Blaney said. “I may be winless, but my consistency is unmatched. I guess that runs in the family because my father Dave also consistently did not win.”
5. Christopher Bell: Bell ran up front for most of the day at Bristol, but suffered a late flat tire and finished 10th in the Food City 500.
“Goodyear really had to stay busy to keep everyone supplied with tires,” Bell said. “There was a point in which every team was wondering if we would even get extra sets of tires. It went from ‘tire wear’ to ‘tire where?’”
6. Ross Chastain: Chastain finished 15th at Bristol.
“My car featured the Busch Light Fishing paint scheme,” Chastain said. “Busch Light would like to remind people to not overdo it if you’re out on the water fishing while enjoying your Busch Light, lest you get ‘fish fried.’”
7. Chris Buescher: Buescher posted his third top-10 finish with a seventh in the Food City 500.
“The No. 17 Build Submarines Ford was strong all day at Bristol,” Buescher said. “Like every other driver, I ran much of the race worrying about whether I’d blow a tire or tires. So, I don’t know what was the biggest theme of the race, stress on tires, or stress about tires.”
8. William Byron: Disaster struck early for Byron at Bristol, as contact between Christopher Bell and Joey Logano sent Byron into the wall on Lap 20, resulting in a broken toe link. Byron finished 35th, eight laps down.
“I’m not happy about what happened,” Byron said. “Now, if you ask me about it, I’d rather not talk about it, which is the opposite of what Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s pool boy did in the 2022 Netflix series ‘God Forbid.’”
9. Ty Gibbs: Gibbs swept Stages 1 and 2 at Bristol, but tire troubles late cost him a chance for the win. He still posted a solid ninth in the Food City 500.
“Toyotas dominated at Bristol,” Gibbs said. “I’m sure that doesn’t make Ford and Chevy drivers happy. Their cars were made in America, but the drivers were mad in America.”
10. Chase Elliott: Eliott finished eight at Bristol.
“Tire wear created a lot of what is known as ‘marbles’ on the track,” Elliott said. “When you can actually see the pieces of your tires coming off and ending up on the track, that can be very scary. But as professional drivers, we have to deal with it. And the only way to deal with marbles on the track is to have marbles in your sack.”
In an event where tire management was the name of the game, Denny Hamlin implemented his racing roots by preserving his tires to the very end, which enabled him to fend off teammate Martin Truex Jr. and win a wild conclusion to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 17.
The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led 13 times for a race-high 163 of 500-scheduled laps after starting in third place and quickly making his presence at the front known by leading for the first time on Lap 21. Then, amid a series of caution periods and tire wear issues that plagued several front-runners and stars, Hamlin preserved his tires and managed to carve his way through traffic and run up front.
He traded the lead on several occasions with his fellow competitors and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates and stretched his worn tires further than his competitors before pitting under green with 53 laps remaining. After cycling back to the lead shortly after, he then managed to fend off a late challenge from Truex while leading 47 of the remaining 48 laps, which was enough for him to claim his first checkered flag of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup on Saturday, March 16, Ryan Blaney secured his first Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 10th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 124.954 mph in 15.356 seconds. Joining him on the front row was rookie Josh Berry, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 124.792 mph in 15.376 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Blaney muscled his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead to take the lead and managed to fend off both Berry and teammate Joey Logano for a full circuit around the Last Great Coliseum’s concrete surface to lead the first lap. Blaney and Berry battled dead even for the lead during the following two laps before Berry muscled his No. 4 SunnyD Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead of Blaney who fell back to second in front of teammate Logano and Chase Briscoe while Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott joined the battle.
Through Laps 5 to 10, Berry retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Blaney while Briscoe, Hamlin and Elliott were running in the top five. Behind, Michael McDowell moved up to sixth followed by Bubba Wallace and Truex while Logano fell back to ninth in front of Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and William Byron.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Berry was leading by a tenth of a second over a hard-charging Hamlin followed by Blaney, Elliott and Wallace while Chase Briscoe, Truex Jr., McDowell, Larson and Brad Keselowski were running in the top 10 ahead of Harrison Burton, Erik Jones, Ty Gibbs, William Byron and Christopher Bell. Meanwhile, Logano had fallen to 16th ahead of Kyle Busch, rookie Zane Smith, Austin Cindric and Tyler Reddick.
A lap later, however, Hamlin overtook Berry for the lead. By then, Byron, who was running in the top 15, had fallen off the pace after he was hit by Logano, who was hit by Bell first, entering the backstretch, which resulted in Byron getting loose, scraping the backstretch’s outside wall and bumping across Bell before slipping towards the outside wall in Turn 3. Byron would pit with a broken toe link to his No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as the event’s first caution period flew on Lap 22 due to debris reported in between Turns 3 and 4.
During the event’s first caution period, nearly the entire field led by Hamlin pitted for service for the first time while Reddick remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Berry exited first with two fresh tires ahead of Wallace, Elliott, Truex, McDowell and Hamlin. Amid the pit stops, Erik Jones was penalized for equipment interference.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 30, Reddick muscled ahead with the lead ahead of Berry and teammate Wallace. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, however, the caution quickly returned after Reddick received a bump from Berry and was pinned in a tight three-wide battle with Wallace and Berry for the lead entering the frontstretch that got Reddick’s No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE spinning sideways in front of McDowell, Elliott and the field. With Reddick spinning below the track, he was then hit by rookie Zane Smith while Daniel Hemric, Corey LaJoie, AJ Allmendinger and rookie Carson Hocevar, all of whom were running towards the rear of the field, all wrecked across the frontstretch while stepping off the gas.
As the event restarted under green on Lap 38, Wallace fended off Berry from the outside lane to retain the lead while McDowell followed suit in a close third place. With Wallace still leading just past the Lap 40 mark, Hamlin and Elliott battled dead even for fourth place while Blaney and Ty Gibbs battled for sixth. Berry, however, would make his move beneath Wallace to reassume the lead through the frontstretch by Lap 41 while McDowell tried to follow suit. This allowed Hamlin to narrow the gap and challenge McDowell for third place, which he would succeed in doing so on Lap 44 while Blaney and Elliott joined the battle. Amid the early battles towards the front, Berry continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Wallace.
On Lap 47, Wallace cycled his No. 23 Leidos Toyota Camry XSE past Berry to reassume the lead. Team owner Hamlin would quickly follow suit in second along with Blaney and Elliott as Berry settled in fifth by the Lap 50 mark, where Wallace would continue to lead. Three laps later, however, Hamlin assumed the lead in his No. 11 Express Oil Change Toyota Camry XSE following a strong move to the outside lane with four fresh tires entering the backstretch over Wallace. Blaney would also follow suit to move into the runner-up spot followed by Elliott while Wallace fell back to fourth as he was being challenged by Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs and Briscoe for more.
Just past the Lap 60 mark, Hamlin was overtaken by Elliott for the race lead in front of a stacked field jostling for positions amid two lanes. With Elliott leading in his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Blaney battled Hamlin for second in front of Keselowski while Kyle Busch battled Wallace for fifth place.
Nearing the Lap 70 mark, the event’s second caution period flew due to debris reported across the frontstretch after Zane Smith blew a right-front tire. By then, Blaney had led Laps 65 to 68 before the lead was acquired by Kyle Busch, starting on Lap 69. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Busch returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited pit road first ahead of Blaney and Elliott while Busch, Keselowski, Briscoe and Bell followed suit. Amid the pit stops, McDowell was penalized for having too many crew members over the pit wall.
With the event restarting under green on Lap 79, Hamlin retained the lead after rocketing away from the field past the restart zone as Blaney and Elliott battled for second in front of Busch, Keselowski and Briscoe. With the field behind battling dead even amongst one another for spots, Hamlin would continue to lead until Blaney shoved his way into the lead through the frontstretch on Lap 83. Blaney would stretch his advantage to as high as two-tenths of a second during the following six laps until Hamlin cycled back into the lead on Lap 89. Behind, Kyle Busch prevailed in a tight battle with Elliott for third place as he tried to close in on the two leaders while Keselowski, Briscoe, Bell, Larson Ty Gibbs and Wallace followed suit in the top 10.
Through the first 100 scheduled laps, Hamlin stretched his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Busch followed by Blaney, Elliott and Keselowski while Bell, Briscoe, Gibbs, Larson and John Hunter Nemechek occupied the top 10 in front of Wallace, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Berry and Justin Haley. Meanwhile, Erik Jones was in 16th ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Truex, Logano and Todd Gilliland while Ryan Preece, McDowell, Austin Cindric, LaJoie and Ross Chastain trailed in the top 25.
Ten laps later, Hamlin continued to lead by over three-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Busch as Blaney and Bell were running third and fourth, with teammates Elliott and Larson fending off Gibbs for fifth and sixth. Hamlin would then stretch his advantage to more than a second over Blaney, with he and Bell overtaking Busch by the Lap 115 mark. By then, Larson retained fifth in front of Gibbs while Elliott was overtaken by Keselowski and Buescher for seventh and eighth.
Then on Lap 120 and with the majority of the field being mired with tire wear concerns, Blaney overtook Hamlin for the lead as Gibbs and Larson followed suit while Hamlin went wide up the track in Turn 1. By then, Busch and Wallace were falling off the pace and losing a bevy of spots amid concerns of losing their tires towards the end of the first stage period. Gibbs then overtook Blaney for the lead on Lap 121 as he proceeded to lap Austin Cindric while Larson moved into the runner-up spot.
Two laps later, the caution flew after Busch spun in Turn 2 after he lost a right-tire tire to his No. 8 FICO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, where Busch would proceed to reverse his entry through the backstretch before spinning it back to the front below the apron as he lost a lap to the leaders. Busch’s incident occurred after Hamlin had hit the outside wall entering the frontstretch due to getting bumped by Byron, with Hamlin also cutting a tire but proceeding straight.
Busch’s incident was enough for the first stage period to conclude under caution as Ty Gibbs captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season and of his career. Larson settled in second followed by Buescher, Keselowski and Nemechek while Blaney, Truex, Preece, Berry and Bell were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service and for another round of fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Larson edged Gibbs off of pit road to exit first while Keselowski, Blaney, Buescher and Nemechek followed suit.
The second stage period started on Lap 140 as Larson and Keselowski occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with a brief advantage through the first two turns and the backstretch before Gibbs rocketed his No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota Camry XSE back into the lead during the following lap. John Hunter Nemechek would follow suit in second along with Berry, with the latter then battling Nemechek for second and challenging Gibbs for the lead by the Lap 145 while Larson fell back to fourth along with Nemechek. Shortly after, teammate Martin Truex Jr., who was quick to carve his way to the front, rocketed his No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE into the lead by Lap 146 before teammate Gibbs cycled back into the lead by Lap 150. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing entries were running in the top five while Larson was battling for second in front of Bell, Truex and Hamlin.
On Lap 154 and with the field running stacked amongst one another through the high banks of Bristol, Larson assumed the lead. Gibbs would reassume the lead three laps later before teammate Hamlin cycled into the lead another two laps.
By Lap 175, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead four laps earlier, was leading by nearly two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex followed by Berry, teammate Bell and Buescher while Keselowski, Larson, Logano, Preece and Nemechek occupied the top 10. Meanwhile, Hamlin had fallen to 11th in front of Blaney, Haley, Daniel Suarez and Kaz Grala.
A lap later, the caution flew after Stenhouse, who was running in the top 20, was mired in a midfield stack-up that started with him making contact with McDowell through the backstretch before he made contact with Hemric and Zane Smith through Turn 4 as Stenhouse’s No. 47 Ball Park Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 emerged wobbling entering the frontstretch while Hemric and Smith hit the outside wall. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Gibbs returned to pit road for service and fresh tires. Following the pit stops, Buescher exited first followed by Gibbs and Truex while Bell, Gilliland, Larson, Logano and Keselowski followed suit. Not long after, Ty Gibbs made an extra pit stop for qualifying scuff tires to preserve his sticker tires.
As the field restarted under green on Lap 189, Buescher retained the lead from the outside lane over Bell and Truex. Buescher would continue to lead by the Lap 200 mark before Bell would zip by Buescher through the frontstretch during the following lap. Teammate Truex would follow suit in second over Buescher while Nemechek and Larson were running in the top five in front of a stacked field. A few laps later, Daniel Suarez nearly wrecked after making contact with Justin Haley through Turns 1 and 2 while battling for a top-10 spot, but he kept his car straight and dropped to 17th while the event remained under green flag conditions.
Twenty-five laps later and amid a series of jostling for positions occurring around the field, Truex cycled past teammate Bell for the lead. By then, teammate Gibbs carved his way back to third place followed by Nemechek and Keselowski while Logano was running sixth ahead of Berry, Hamlin, Grala and Larson.
Another three laps later, the caution flew after Kyle Busch, who was mired in 31st and a lap down, spun for a second time on his own in Turn 2. With nearly the entire field led by Bell pitting again, Bell retained the lead after exiting first with four fresh tires while Nemechek, Logano, Hamlin, Larson and Truex followed suit in the top six. Back on the track, however, Spire Motorsports’ LaJoie and Hocevar remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Blaney was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With the event restarting with 11 laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, LaJoie led the field entering the first turn before Bell used the four fresh tires to his advantage as he zipped his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE past the Spire entries for the lead. Logano would quickly follow suit in second along with Nemechek as the field stacked up while navigating past Hocevar and LaJoie.
On Lap 242, Logano gave Bell a bump through Turns 1 and 2 in his bid for the lead, but Bell withstood his ground as he retained the lead. Logano would give Bell another hit on the side during the following lap as they both battled dead even for the lead in front of Nemechek and Gibbs. With Logano claiming the lead and clearing Bell by Lap 245, Gibbs navigated his way past teammate Bell for second during the following lap while Keselowski and Nemechek battled Bell for third. In the process, Logano retained a narrow lead over Gibbs before Gibbs claimed the lead back on Lap 248.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 250, Ty Gibbs claimed his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the day and of the 2024 season. Keselowski overtook Logano through the frontstretch to claim second place while Nemechek, Bell, Truex, Hamlin, Larson, Wallace and Ryan Preece were scored in the top 10.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Gibbs peeled off the track to pit road. Following the pit stops, Gibbs retained the lead after exiting pit road first with two fresh tires ahead of Logano, Truex, Bell, Gilliland, Nemechek and Keselowski, who was hit on the right front side by Austin Cindric while trying to exit his pit stall. Amid the tire concerns generated by all teams since the event’s start, Goodyear released an extra set of tires for all teams to use.
With 236 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Gibbs and Truex occupied the front row. At the start, Gibbs retained the lead over Truex while teammate Bell settled in third ahead of Logano, Nemechek and Keselowski. With the field stacked amid two lanes, Gibbs stretched his advantage to three-tenths of a second with 230 laps remaining. By then, Gilliland moved up to fourth as he was running in between Bell and Nemechek while Keselowski and Logano dropped to eighth and ninth as they were running behind Larson and Hamlin on the track. In addition, Ross Chastain was running 10th on two fresh tires as he was trying to retain the spot over Berry and Wallace.
With 115 laps remaining, Truex cycled past teammate Gibbs for the lead as teammate Bell trailed by half a second in third place. By then, teammate Hamlin was running in sixth place behind Nemechek and Larson while Berry and Haley cracked the top 10. In addition, Logano was plummeting in the leaderboard as he had dropped out of the top 20 while nearly making contact with teammate Blaney.
Down to the final 200 laps of the event, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while teammate Gibbs trailed by half a second in third place. Behind, Nemechek was in fourth place ahead of Hamlin, thus placing five Toyota competitors in the top five, while Keselowski, Larson, Berry, Gilliland and Haley were running in the top 10 ahead of Grala, Chastain, Blaney, McDowell and Wallace. Meanwhile, Logano dropped to 27th behind Austin Dillon and Buescher was in 20th while Elliott was mired in 23rd in between Hocevar and LaJoie.
Nine laps later, the caution flew after Berry, who was running in the top 10, slipped sideways and did a full 360 spin entering the backstretch, but managed to keep his No. 4 entry off the wall. By then, all four Joe Gibbs Racing competitors led by Truex were running first through fourth in front of Keselowski, Larson and Nemechek. As the lead lap field led by Truex drove to pit road for service, Hamlin emerged with the lead after he exited pit road first ahead of teammates Bell and Gibbs followed by Larson while teammate Truex exited fifth ahead of Keselowski, Nemechek and Blaney.
With the event restarting under green with 178 laps remaining, Hamlin muscled ahead with the lead through the first two turns before teammate Gibbs rocketed past Hamlin through the backstretch to return to the lead. Behind, Hamlin fended off teammates Bell and Truex to retain second while Larson tried to challenge Truex for fourth place as he was running ahead of Gilliland, Nemechek and McDowell. As the field behind jostled for late positions, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to three-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin with 170 laps remaining.
With 160 laps remaining, Gibbs continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Bell trailed in third place by eight-tenths of a second. With a three-wide action ensuing between Gilliland, Berry and Alex Bowman for top-15 spots and more battles ensuring around the Last Great Coliseum, Gibbs stabilized his narrow advantage to two-tenths of a second over teammate Hamlin while teammate Bell, Larson, Keselowski and teammate Truex were running third to sixth with 150 laps remaining. Additionally, Haley was running seventh in front of McDowell, Blaney and Bubba Wallace while Kaz Grala and Nemechek settled in the top 12.
Through the final 135 laps of the event, Hamlin zipped by teammate Gibbs for the lead through the frontstretch. By then, Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson each made separate contact with the outside wall, but the event remained under green flag conditions.
Two laps later, the caution returned after Cindric, who was trying to remain on the lead lap from the leader Hamlin, slipped up the track while avoiding Gilliland and made contact with Stenhouse, who was a lap down, that sent both for a spin in Turn 4 as Hamlin, Gibbs and Bell scattered to avoid the chaos. The caution period prompted the leaders to return to pit road for service, where Hamlin retained the lead after exiting pit road first ahead of teammates Bell and Gibbs along with Larson, teammate Truex and Keselowski. Amid the pit stops, Larson was penalized for an equipment interference penalty.
During the ensuing restart period with 121 laps remaining, Hamlin retained the lead after muscling away from teammates Bell and Gibbs, though Bell managed to muscle ahead and lead the proceeding lap before Hamlin reclaimed the top spot by the next lap as Gibbs battled teammate Bell in front of teammate Truex and Keselowski. As Hamlin retained the lead in front of his three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammates with 110 laps remaining, Keselowski settled in fifth ahead of McDowell while Haley was running in seventh ahead of Blaney, Wallace and Nemechek.
Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead from teammate Hamlin a lap earlier, was leading ahead of teammates Bell, Hamlin and Truex, respectively, while Keselowski retained fifth ahead of McDowell, Haley, Nemechek, Wallace and Berry.
Fifteen laps later, Gibbs continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Bell as teammates Hamlin and Truex followed suit in the top four. Another nine laps later, Hamlin nearly took the lead from teammate Gibbs, but he had to move up the track to avoid hitting Gilliland as Gibbs retained the lead in front of Hamlin and Truex while Bell was in fourth ahead of Keselowski.
Not long after and with the concern of tire wear returning amongst the teams, Hamlin, who assumed the lead with 75 laps remaining, was leading over teammate Truex. By then, a bevy of competitors including Berry, Blaney, Bell, Larson and Gilliland were losing ground of the leaders due to tire wear. Gibbs would then lose ground of the lead as his tires were wearing out, which allowed Keselowski to move up to third place. With Briscoe also falling off the pace, Blaney fell off the pace after he lost a tire, which forced him to pit, and Larson pitted under green. Bell would then pit under green with 60 laps remaining due to a flat tire while Hamlin retained a narrow lead over teammate Truex as he was trying to preserve his tires.
With 55 laps remaining and with nearly the entire field being pinned a lap down after having made a pit stop under green for fresh tires, the top-six competitors led by Hamlin were scored on the lead lap. Two laps later, Hamlin surrendered the lead to pit under green as Hocevar made contact with the wall, though the event remained under green flag conditions. Teammate Truex would pit another two laps later along with Keselowski. Once Alex Bowman pitted from the lead with 49 laps remaining, Hamlin cycled back into the lead.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by more than a second over teammate Truex while Berry, Keselowski and Larson were scored in the top five ahead of Buescher, Bell, Nemechek, Haley and Bowman. Hamlin’s advantage would then shrink to three-tenths of a second over Truex with 30 laps remaining as they were mired in lapped traffic.
With 20 laps remaining, Hamlin continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over teammate Truex as they both continued to be mired in lapped traffic. With Keselowski scored in third ahead of Berry and Larson, Hamlin managed to navigate his way through the lapped traffic to fend off Truex and retain the lead with 10 laps remaining.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Hamlin stabilized his advantage to four-tenths of a second over Truex as both cleared a majority of the lapped traffic, but the latter kept the former within his sights.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Hamlin remained as the leader by half a second over Truex. With Truex unable to mount a final lap charge on his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for a final circuit, Hamlin was able to preserve his tires and navigate his way around the Bristol circuit smoothly for a final time as he claimed the checkered flag by a second over Truex.
With the victory, Hamlin, who became the fifth winner through the 2024 season’s first five events, recorded his 52nd career win in the NASCAR Cup Series, his fourth at Bristol, with the victory being his first in the spring, and his first since winning the Bristol Night Race last September. The 2024 Cup season marks Hamlin’s 18th season where he has achieved at least one victory in NASCAR’s premier series as he also recorded the second consecutive victory in recent weeks for both Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“[Tire management], That’s what I grew up doing here in the short tracks of the whole mid-Atlantic [region],” Hamlin said on FOX. “South Boston [Speedway], Martinsville [Speedway], all those tracks. It’s just what I grew up doing. Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances, but obviously, the veteran in Martin [Truex Jr.], he knew how to do it as well. We just had a great car. Great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them. Man, it feels so good to win at Bristol.”
Truex, who has finished in the top 15 through this season’s first four-scheduled events, came home with a strong runner-up result for his first top-five finish of the 2024 campaign.
“Just really proud of my team, everybody on our Auto-Owners Camry,” Truex said. “[Crew chief] James [Small] and the guys did a great job this weekend in having a plan coming here. I guess this tire management thing fit into my wheelhouse here at Bristol. The difference was just coming down to the pits so far behind Denny. I had to use mine [tires] up more than him on the last run and then, the last four or five laps of the race, my right rear [tire] was cored. We gave it a hell of an effort. I had a lot of fun today. Second always hurts a little, but it’s a really good run for us here. It’s been a great season so far for us.”
Keselowski settled in third place while Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson finished in the top five and as the final group of competitors to finish on the lead lap. John Hunter Nemechek, Buescher, Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Bell, who were all a lap down, finished in the top 10.
Notably, Berry finished 12th, pole-sitter Blaney ended up 16th, Logano fell back to 22nd and Kyle Busch ended up 25th behind teammate Austin Dillon.
There were a race-record 54 lead changes for 16 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 98 laps. In addition, only five of the 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the fifth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson and Truex Jr. are tied for the regular-season lead in the points standings as they are both ahead by seven points over Ty Gibbs, eight over Ryan Blaney and 12 over Denny Hamlin.
Results.
1. Denny Hamlin, 163 laps led
2. Martin Truex Jr., 54 laps led
3. Brad Keselowski, one lap led
4. Alex Bowman, three laps led
5. Kyle Larson, 19 laps led
6. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
7. Chris Buescher, one lap down, 17 laps led
8. Chase Elliott, one lap down, five laps led
9. Ty Gibbs, one lap down, 137 laps led, Stages 1 & 2 winner
10. Christopher Bell, one lap down, 29 laps led
11. Michael McDowell, one lap down
12. Josh Berry, one lap down, 25 laps led
13. Chase Briscoe, two laps down
14. Ryan Preece, two laps down
15. Ross Chastain, two laps down
16. Ryan Blaney, two laps down, 14 laps led
17. Justin Haley, two laps down
18. Daniel Suarez, two laps down
19. Kaz Grala, two laps down
20. Erik Jones, two laps down
21. Corey LaJoie, two laps down, four laps led
22. Joey Logano, two laps down, five laps led
23. AJ Allmendinger, two laps down
24. Austin Dillon, two laps down
25. Kyle Busch, two laps down, five laps led
26. Todd Gilliland, three laps down
27. Carson Hocevar, three laps down
28. Daniel Hemric, four laps down
29. Bubba Wallace, four laps down, 15 laps led
30. Tyler Reddick, five laps down, four laps led
31. Austin Cindric, five laps down
32. Harrison Burton, five laps down
33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., five laps down
34. Noah Gragson, six laps down
35. William Byron, eight laps down
36. Zane Smith – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ fourth annual running of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The event is scheduled for next Sunday, March 24, and will air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Christopher Bell was not to be denied. His fast No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE entry enabled him to rally from restarting towards the middle of the pack during a late-race restart period to leading the final 41 laps en route to a strong victory in the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 10.
The 29-year-old Bell from Norman, Oklahoma, led twice for 50 of 312-scheduled laps in an event where he started 13th and spent the first stage period running within the top 15 before his car came to life during the second stage period, which allowed him to carve his way to the front and claim the second stage victory over Toyota teammate Tyler Reddick.
Despite losing ground for the lead following a slow pit stop prior to the start of the final stage, Bell, who dodged a series of cautions and on-track incidents during the final stage’s start, pitted along with the majority of the front-runners for fresh tires and fuel during a late caution period with less than 98 laps remaining. During the final restart with 92 laps remaining, Bell used the four fresh tires to his advantage and methodically navigated his way back towards the front. Once teammate Martin Truex Jr. pitted for fresh tires and fuel with 41 laps remaining, the lead was all Bell’s as the Oklahoma native maintained a sizeable gap between himself and Chris Buescher and teammate Ty Gibbs for the remainder of the event, which was enough for him to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2024 season.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 9, Denny Hamlin claimed his first Cup Series pole position of the 2024 season after posting a pole-winning lap at 132.655 mph in 27.138 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate Ty Gibbs, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 132.227 mph in 27.226 seconds.
Prior to the event, rookie Josh Berry dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments and repairs made to his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry after he spun and hit the wall during his qualifying attempt.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, teammates Hamlin and Ty Gibbs dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first two turns until Gibbs rocketed his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE into the lead from the outside lane entering the backstretch. As the field fanned out to as large as four lanes, Gibbs proceeded to lead the first lap while Erik Jones battled and overtook Hamlin for the runner-up spot.
Through the second to fifth lap marks, Gibbs maintained a steady lead that would grow to half a second over Erik Jones and teammate Hamlin while Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott followed suit in the top five. Behind, William Byron trailed in sixth ahead of Chase Briscoe and rookie Carson Hocevar while Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr. and Noah Gragson battled for ninth place in front of Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson.
Then approaching the sixth lap, the event’s first caution flew after Derek Kraus spun sideways on the bottom lane through Turn 2 and back across the track entering the backstretch before he was hit by both Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric, the latter of which would retire from further competition. During the event’s first caution period, some including Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Ty Gibbs remained on the track.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 12, Gibbs muscled ahead of the field to retain the lead on the inside lane while Reddick ignited a three-wide battle on Hamlin and Erik Jones for the runner-up spot. Jones would use the outside lane to fend off both Toyota teammates for second place as Elliott and Byron trailed closely in the top six. In addition, Briscoe and Hocevar battled for seventh place along with McDowell while Gibbs stretched his early advantage by nearly half a second over Jones by the Lap 15 mark.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Gibbs was leading by four-tenths of a second over Jones followed by Hamlin, Reddick and Chase Elliott while William Byron, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney followed suit in the top 10. Behind, Martin Truex Jr. was in 11th ahead of Noah Gragson, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Christopher Bell while Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch and John Hunter Nemechek trailed in the top 20. Meanwhile, Josh Berry was mired in 21st ahead of Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece and Alex Bowman while Todd Gilliland, Corey LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Daniel Hemric and Justin Haley rounded out the top 30.
Ten laps later, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to seven-tenths of a second over Jones while Hamlin and Reddick trailed by within one-and-a-half seconds. Elliott would trail the top-four competitors by more than two seconds and teammate Byron would trail by more than three seconds as Gibbs maintained the lead by four-tenths of a second over Jones, who was slowly closing in on the leader, by the Lap 40 mark.
By Lap 50, Gibbs stabilized his advantage to two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Reddick, who moved into the runner-up spot, followed by Hamlin while Jones fell back to fourth place. In the process, Hendrick Motorsports’ Elliott and Byron remained in fifth and sixth, respectively, as they trailed the lead by more than two seconds while McDowell, Blaney, Briscoe and Truex were running in the top 10 ahead of Larson, Gragson, Hocevar, Suarez and Keselowski.
Seven laps later, Reddick, who navigated his way around Phoenix’s racing lanes to narrow the gap between himself and Gibbs, drew himself into a side-by-side battle with Gibbs for the lead through the backstretch and the frontstretch. Gibbs would try to fight back from the outside lane, but Reddick used the inside lane to muscle his No. 45 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the top spot.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 60, Reddick, who capitalized late on his battle with Ty Gibbs, captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season as he also stretched his advantage to six-tenths of a second. Gibbs settled in second followed by Hamlin, Jones and Elliott while Byron, Blaney, McDowell, Briscoe and Truex were scored in the top 10.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Reddick pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin emerged as the new race leader after he exited pit road first from the first pit box while Reddick, Byron, Elliott, Gibbs, Blaney, Briscoe, Larson, Keselowski and Jones followed suit in the top 10. Not long after, Larson pitted his No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for a second time due to a left-rear tire issue while Hocevar also pitted again for a loose wheel.
The second stage period started on Lap 69 as Hamlin and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Mavis Brakes Plus Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead as the front-runners dived below the frontstretch dog-leg and fanned out entering the first two turns. With Hamlin leading the race, Reddick maintained the runner-up spot while a three-wide action for third place involving Gibbs, Byron and Elliott ensued in front of Blaney. In the process, Keselowski was in seventh ahead of another three-wide battle involving Truex, Briscoe and Jones while Hamlin was leading just past the Lap 70 mark.
Through the first 80 scheduled laps, Hamlin extended his advantage to a second over Reddick followed by Elliott, Gibbs and Byron while Blaney, Truex, Keselowski, Bell and Gragson trailed in the top 10 ahead of Erik Jones, Suarez, Briscoe, Bowman and McDowell. Hamlin would stretch his lead to more than two seconds over Reddick by the Lap 90 mark while Elliott, Gibbs and Byron remained in the top five.
At the Lap 100 mark, Hamlin continued to lead by nearly two seconds over Reddick followed by Elliott, Byron and Gibbs while Truex, Bell, Blaney, Keselowski and Gragson were scored in the top 10. Behind, Erik Jones trailed in 11th followed by Suarez, Briscoe, Bowman and McDowell while Buescher, Wallace, Chastain, Preece and Larson were running in the top 20 ahead of Nemechek, Logano, LaJoie, Kyle Busch and Berry.
Fifteen laps later, Hamlin stabilized his lead to more than a second over Reddick as Elliott and Byron remained in the top four. Meanwhile, Bell carved his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE into fifth place followed by teammate Truex while teammate Ty Gibbs dropped to seventh.
Shortly after, green flag pit stops commenced as Blaney pitted his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse along with Chastain and Larson. More names like Byron, Bell, Truex, Keselowski, Bowman, Wallace, Buescher, Preece, Logano, LaJoie, Daniel Hemric, Elliott, Gibbs, Briscoe, Nemechek, rookie Zane Smith, Justin Haley and Reddick would pit during the ensuing laps, starting from Lap 116, before Hamlin pitted from the lead on Lap 119.
Just past the Lap 120 mark and with nearly the entire field having made a pit stop under green, Todd Gilliland, who has yet to pit, was leading ahead of Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Hocevar and Kraus, all of whom have yet to pit, while Hamlin, the first competitor who pitted and who nearly made contact with Suarez while trying to enter his pit stall, trailed in sixth place as he also had Reddick closing in on him for position.
On Lap 133, Reddick, who overtook Hamlin through the first two turns a lap earlier, used the outside lane to rocket past Gilliland for the race lead. Hamlin would quickly follow suit for the runner-up spot as Byron and Bell trailed in the top five within six seconds. By then, Stenhouse and Hocevar remained on the track in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Kyle Busch was scored a lap down after he pitted under green.
Just past the Lap 145 mark, Reddick stretched his advantage to nearly a second over Hamlin as Gilliland, who led 14 laps, continued to run on the track in third place ahead of Bell, Byron and Truex. Reddick would maintain his lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Bell and Byron overtook Gilliland for third and fourth by Lap 150.
By the halfway mark on Lap 156, Reddick continued to lead within a second over Hamlin while Bell, Byron and Truex trailed in the top five ahead of Gilliland, Blaney, Elliott, Keselowski and Gragson, all of whom were running in the top 10 and trailing the lead by 14 seconds. Reddick would maintain the lead by eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Bell trailed in third place by more than a second as Gilliland pitted under green by the Lap 165 mark.
By Lap 175, Reddick, who was mired in lapped traffic as he was trying to lap Logano, retained the lead by two-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Bell, who nearly overtook Reddick for the lead entering the first two turns, while third-place Hamlin trailed by nearly a second as Byron and Truex trailed from a distance in the top five. Bell would then capitalize on his charge to overtake Reddick for the lead through the first two turns with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 185, Bell captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick trailed in second followed by Hamlin, Byron and Truex while Blaney, Elliott, Gragson, Keselowski and Chris Buescher were scored in the top 10. By then, 19 of 36 starters were scored on the lead lap while Ryan Preece, who was running 19th, managed to fend off Logano to emerge as the first competitor scored a lap down and receive the free pass.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Bell returned to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Hamlin benefitted from having the first pit box towards the exit of pit road for a second time as he exited first followed by Reddick, Byron, Elliott, Blaney and Truex. Amid the pit stops, Harrison Burton was penalized for speeding on pit road.
With 118 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as Hamlin and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, the front-runners fanned out and dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Hamlin maintained the lead in front of a side-by-side battle between Reddick and Byron for the runner-up spot. With the field still fanning out across multiple lanes from the backstretch through the frontstretch, Hamlin maintained the lead in front of Reddick and Byron. The caution, however, would return two laps later after Kyle Busch, who was mired in 25th, got loose through Turn 2 and was bumped by Zane Smith into Kaz Grala before Busch spun his No. 8 zone Premium Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 within the middle of the track through the backstretch.
During the following restart with 110 laps remaining, the front-runners dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Reddick overtook Hamlin for the lead. With the field fanning out through the backstretch, Reddick was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin followed by Blaney, Byron and Truex as Ross Chastain, who was running in the middle of the pack, scraped the outside wall towards the frontstretch, though the event remained under green flag conditions.
With 107 laps remaining, the caution returned after Logano, who was scored as the first competitor a lap down, received a huge bump by Nemechek entering Turn 1 that sent his No. 22 Hunt Brother’s Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse spinning below the apron before he came back across the track and was hit by Corey LaJoie, with Kraus, Zane Smith and Berry also involved as Logano’s long afternoon came to a late end.
As the event restarted with 100 laps remaining, the leaders dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Reddick battled and fended off Hamlin to retain the lead. With Hamlin fighting back during the following lap by drawing even with Reddick, Truex joined the tight three-car battle for the lead while Byron maintained fourth place in front of a three-wide battle involving Gragson, Keselowski and Wallace as Blaney and Bell battled for ninth.
The caution, however, returned with 98 laps remaining after Hamlin, who was battling Reddick for the lead, got loose underneath Reddick entering Turn 1 as he slid into Reddick and spun sideways from the middle to the bottom lane through Turn 2 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid hitting Hamlin. During the caution period, a majority of the front-runners led by Reddick pitted for fresh tires and fuel while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.
With the event restarting with 92 laps remaining, the field fanned out and dived through the frontstretch dog-leg as Truex maintained the lead in front of the field. During the following lap, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over Preece, Gilliland, Chastain and Buescher while Ty Gibbs, who pitted for two fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, carved his way up to seventh place. Amid the tight battles between those who pitted and those who did not, Wallace, who was getting pinned in between Briscoe and Erik Jones while battling for a top-10 spot, got loose and got Jones’ No. 43 Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE sideways entering Turn 1, which resulted with Jones making contact with the outside wall and plummeting in the leaderboard, though the event remained under green flag conditions.
Back at the front of the pack, Ty Gibbs continued to use the two fresh tires to his advantage as he carved his way up to third place while Truex continued to lead by two-tenths of a second over Preece with 90 laps remaining. By then, names like Chastain, McDowell, Gilliland, Buescher, Briscoe, Keselowski and Suarez were running in the top 10 while front-runners Reddick, Bell, Blaney, Elliott, Hamlin and Byron were mired in 12th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th and 20th, respectively.
With 75 laps remaining, Truex was leading by two seconds over Preece as Ty Gibbs was trying to close in and overtake Preece for the runner-up spot. Behind, Chastain was running in fourth place ahead of Buescher, Keselowski and McDowell while Bell carved his way up to eighth place with four fresh tires in front of Gilliland and Briscoe. By then, Reddick was mired in 12th while Blaney was in 14th. Meanwhile, Hamlin was in 16th while Wallace was back in 18th.
Fifteen laps later, Truex, who continued to hold strong on old tires and with questions arising on how much fuel he had to make it to the scheduled distance, was still leading as he stretched his advantage to four seconds over teammate Ty Gibbs, who overtook Preece for the runner-up spot six laps earlier. Behind, Chastain was in fourth while Bell navigated his way into the top five on his four fresh tires. Bell would then overtake both Preece and Chastain to move his strong race car into third place another two laps later as he trailed his teammate by less than six seconds.
With 50 laps remaining, Truex continued to lead by five seconds over teammate Bell, who overtook teammate Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot on four fresh tires and with enough fuel for the scheduled distance as he was running faster lap times compared to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. Behind, Chastain and Buescher were running in the top five ahead of Preece, Keselowski, McDowell and Gilliland while Reddick was able to navigate his way back into the top 10 as he was in 10th followed by Gilliland, Gragson, Blaney, Suarez and Hamlin.
Nine laps later, Truex surrendered the lead to pit his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE under green for fresh tires and a full tank of fuel as he ended up a lap down. This allowed teammate Bell to assume the race lead as he was leading by more than two seconds over teammate Ty Gibbs while Chastain, Buescher and Keselowski were scored in the top five. As Preece pitted under green, Truex would manage to overtake teammate Bell to un-lap himself while the latter stretched his advantage by more than four seconds over teammate Gibbs with 30 laps remaining. By then, Reddick was up to eighth place ahead of Blaney and Gragson while Hamlin was in 11th.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Bell stabilized his advantage to more than four seconds over teammate Gibbs while Buescher, Chastain and Keselowski continued to hold strong in the top five. Behind, Reddick moved his Mobil 1 entry up to seventh behind McDowell, Blaney was in eighth ahead of Briscoe and Gragson, Hamlin was still mired in 11th, Larson was in 14th and Byron was mired in 18th behind Truex.
Five laps later, Bell stretched his lead slightly to five seconds over teammate Gibbs while third-place Buescher trailed by less than six seconds. Bell would extend his lead by another second to six seconds over Buescher, who overtook Gibbs for the runner-up spot, with 10 laps remaining as Keselowski and Chastain battled fiercely for fourth place.
Down to the final five laps of the event, Bell maintained the lead by more than six seconds over Buescher and teammate Gibbs while Keselowski and Chastain continued to run in the top five ahead of Blaney and McDowell. Behind, Briscoe, Truex and Reddick battled for eighth while Gragson and Hamlin battled for 11th.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Bell remained as the leader by more than five seconds over Buescher’s No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. With the gap between the leader and the runner-up spot large, Bell was able to navigate his way around the Phoenix circuit smoothly for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and claimed his first checkered flag of the 2024 Cup Series season.
With the victory, Bell, who became the fourth winner through the first four events of the 2024 Cup season, captured his seventh Cup Series career victory and his first at Phoenix as he extended his winning streak in the Cup circuit to four consecutive seasons. Bell also registered the first Cup victory of the 2024 season for both Joe Gibbs Racing and the Toyota nameplate while also recording the first official victory for Toyota’s Camry XSE stock car.
“This one feels really good,” Bell said on the frontstretch on FOX. “A credit to my engineers, my crew chief and all the mechanics on this [No. 20 car]. You don’t get cars like that very often as you know. Just super, super proud to be on this No. 20 car. This Rheem Camry was amazing today. I feel like we have [a] capability of running races like this a lot. Hopefully, this [win] is the first of many this year.”
Buescher, whose previous best result in the Cup Series is ninth during the first three events on this year’s schedule and who is coming off an early accident last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway due to a loose wheel that resulted in the suspension of two of his crew members, settled in the runner-up spot followed by Ty Gibbs, who led 57 laps and notched a career-best result.
“[The runner-up finish]’s huge,” Buescher said. “We’ve talked a lot internally. We’ve been able to lead, at any point, on all three races leading up to this. We didn’t quite get there today but certainly, a great finish for our BuildSubs.com Ford Mustang. Really proud of everybody. I know we had a rough go last weekend. This [finish] was good to get everybody back together and prove that we’re in this together. We’re gonna win or lose these things as a team. That was almost a win today.”
Keselowski came home in fourth place while Blaney edged Chastain to finish fifth.
Chastain, Truex, McDowell, Briscoe and Reddick finished in the top 10.
Notably, Hamlin, who led the most laps at 68 along with his 23XI Racing driver Reddick, ended up 11th ahead of Noah Gragson, Larson settled in 14th, Wallace ended up 16th, Byron finished 18th ahead of teammates Elliott and Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch capped off his long afternoon in 22nd. In addition, Carson Hocevar emerged as the highest-finishing rookie candidate in 15th place.
There were 10 lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 40 laps. In addition, 21 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the fourth event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Ryan Blaney leads the regular-season standings by 10 points over both Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr., 17 over William Byron and 21 over both Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs.
Results.
1. Christopher Bell, 50 laps led, Stage 2 winner
2. Chris Buescher
3. Ty Gibbs, 57 laps led
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Ross Chastain
7. Martin Truex Jr., 55 laps led
8. Michael McDowell
9. Chase Briscoe
10. Tyler Reddick, 68 laps led, Stage 1 winner
11. Denny Hamlin, 68 laps led
12. Noah Gragson
13. Daniel Suarez
14. Kyle Larson
15. Carson Hocevar
16. Bubba Wallace
17. Todd Gilliland, 14 laps led
18. William Byron
19. Chase Elliott
20. Alex Bowman
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22. Kyle Busch, one lap down
23. Ryan Preece, one lap down
24. Justin Haley, one lap down
25. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down
26. Josh Berry, two laps down
27. Harrison Burton, two laps down
28. Daniel Hemric, two laps down
29. Zane Smith, three laps down
30. Kaz Grala, three laps down
31. Erik Jones, seven laps down
32. Austin Dillon, eight laps down
33. Corey LaJoie – OUT, Accident
34. Joey Logano – OUT, Accident
35. Derek Kraus – OUT, Accident
36. Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the return of the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 17, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
With Tyler Reddick hounding behind on three different scenarios, Kyle Larson struck gold during all three stages, including the latest, to land a dominant NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 3.
“I knew Tyler (Reddick) was going to be the guy to beat,” Larson said after the race. “From the first stage, he was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were going to get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt it was going to time out to where he was running really hard and getting the tow to catch me at the end. Thankfully, I was able to air-lock him a couple of laps and get him tight. I thought (Reddick) and Bubba (Wallace) were going to get working together again to build a run, so I was happy that didn’t happen.
“All in all, such a great, great job by this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, restarts, pit road.. all of that was great. Cool to get a win here in Las Vegas again, back-to-back, and swept all the stages. Can’t ask for much more than that.”
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led eight times for a race-high 181 of 267 scheduled laps in an event where he started on the front row alongside pole-sitter Joey Logano but quickly made his presence known by assuming the lead for the first time on the third lap.
In an event highlighted by gusty wind temperatures, pit strategies and racing that fanned out to nearly five lanes, Larson fended off late charges from Reddick to capture both Stage 1 and 2 of the event. During the final restart with 27 laps remaining, Larson would then fend off Ross Chastain amid a late-race duel. He then spent the remainder of the event fending off another charge from Reddick, who used every inch of the circuit and the outside wall to overtake Larson but was unable to do so as Larson capitalized to achieve his first Cup victory of the 2024 season and cash in on a Vegas victory for a second consecutive time.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, March 2, Joey Logano secured his second Cup pole position of the 2024 season and the 30th of his career after posting a pole-winning lap at 184.357 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Kyle Larson, who clocked in the second-fastest qualifying lap at 184.225 mph in 29.312 seconds.
Prior to the event, Ross Chastain dropped to the rear of the field due to a replaced hood wrap. Ryan Preece also dropped to the rear of the event in a backup car after he wrecked his primary car during the practice session along with Justin Haley with a changed steering rack that prevented him from qualifying.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Logano muscled his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse ahead with the lead entering the first two turns as the field fanned out to multiple lanes. With the field still fanned out through the backstretch and through Turns 3 and 4, Logano proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of a hard-charging Larson while Austin Cindric, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Bubba Wallace followed suit. Amid the early battles, Larson would then assume the lead from Logano by the third lap.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Larson was leading by half a second over teammate Byron followed by Logano, Cindric and Martin Truex Jr. while Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ty Gibbs occupied the top 10 in front of Chase Elliott, rookie Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. By then, rookie Zane Smith made an unscheduled pit stop under green after he hit the backstretch’s outside wall a few laps earlier.
On Lap 10, the event’s first caution period flew after Bell, who was mired within the top 20, fell off the pace through the frontstretch as he emerged with smoke and a flat right-rear tire to his No. 20 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry XSE.
During the event’s first caution period, the lead lap field led by Logano pitted for service. Following the pit stops amid mixed strategies, Chris Buescher exited in first place after only opting for a two-tire pit stop followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie, Reddick and Suarez while Larson, the first competitor who emerged with four fresh tires, exited sixth ahead of Byron, Logano, Cindric and Wallace. Amid the pit stops, Todd Gilliland was penalized for crew members over the pit wall too soon.
When the race restarted on Lap 15, Buescher and Briscoe dueled for the lead through the first two turns and they continued to battle dead even for the lead through the backstretch and back to the frontstretch until Byron and LaJoie attempted to make it a four-wide battle for the lead. With Byron going from fourth to second through the frontstretch, he then battled Briscoe on four fresh tires through the first two turns until he muscled ahead through Turns 3 and 4 before the Lap 17 mark. With Byron leading ahead of Briscoe, LaJoie and Larson, Daniel Suarez was in fifth ahead of Bubba Wallace and Buescher while Tyler Reddick, Cindric, Logano, Truex and Stenhouse followed suit in the top 12.
Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Byron was leading by more than a second over teammate Larson followed by Briscoe, Corey LaJoie and Wallace while Suarez, Buescher, Reddick, Truex and Austin Cindric were running in the top 10 ahead of Logano, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Stenhouse, Ryan Blaney, Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon.
A lap later, Buescher, who was running seventh on two fresh right-side tires, went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 1 after losing a right-front wheel to his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse due to a lug nut not being tight, which drew the event’s second caution period as Buescher’s event came to an early end. During the caution period, nearly the entire lead lap field led by Byron returned to pit road for service while the rest led by Suarez and McDowell remained on the track. Following the pit stops amid another round of mixed strategies, Truex exited pit road first on two fresh tires while Kyle Busch, Larson, Byron, Hamlin, Wallace and Briscoe followed suit. The event would then be placed in a red flag period for more than 10 minutes to allow the on-track safety crew to finalize repairs to the outside wall towards Turn 1.
When the red flag lifted and the event restarted under green on Lap 35, Suarez received a shove from Truex to maintain the lead through the first two turns as the field fanned out to three lanes entering the backstretch. Amid the battles between those who pitted and those who either took two or four fresh tires during the previous caution period, Suarez maintained the lead during the following lap ahead of a side-by-side battle involving McDowell and Truex while John Hunter Nemechek, Larson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Byron and Wallace jostled within the top 10 along with LaJoie, Reddick and Hocevar.
On Lap 43, Kyle Busch battled and overtook Suarez for the lead as Larson and Truex also joined the battle towards the front. Larson would then quickly move into the runner-up spot as Suarez was trying to fend off Truex for third place ahead of McDowell and Nemechek, both of whom were running on old tires, as Hamlin followed suit in seventh. A few laps later, the battle at the front between Kyle Busch and Larson slowly started to brew as Larson trailed Busch by two-tenths of a second.
On Lap 48, Byron, who was running towards the front early in the event, made an unscheduled pit stop under green to have a large piece of black debris removed from the front nose of the No. 24 Z by HP Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. With Byron losing a lap in the process, Larson continued to pressure Busch for the lead through every turn and straightaway while Suarez trailed in third place by nearly two seconds.
By Lap 60, Kyle Busch retained the lead by a tenth of a second over Larson. Two laps later, however, Larson zipped his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 around Busch’s No. 8 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 through the first two turns and entering the backstretch, with the former leading the event. By then, Reddick trailed in third place by more than two seconds followed by Toyota competitors Truex, Hamlin and Ty Gibbs while Suarez retained seventh ahead of Cindric, LaJoie and a hard-charging Bell.
At the Lap 70 mark, Larson stretched his advantage to more than half a second over Busch followed by Reddick, Truex and Hamlin while Ty Gibbs, LaJoie, Bell, Chastain and Cindric trailed in the top 10. By then, Suarez fell back to 14th behind Logano, Blaney and Bowman, Elliott was in 17th and Wallace had fallen back to 20th.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 80, Larson captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick charged his way to a runner-up result followed by Truex and Busch while Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, LaJoie, Chastain, Cindric and Bell were scored in the top 10. By then, 33 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap while Byron, who was mired in 34th, fended off JJ Yeley to emerge as the first competitor who was scored a lap down and received the free pass during the stage break period.
Under the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex exited first followed by teammate Hamlin, Larson, LaJoie, Busch, Ty Gibbs, Bell, Bowman, Logano and Cindric. Amid the pit stops, Reddick plummeted to 16th after he pitted too close to his pit wall after he slid into his stall, which forced him to reverse and straighten his car.
The second stage period started on Lap 88 as teammates Truex and Hamlin occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out to three lanes as teammates Truex and Hamlin battled dead even for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch until Hamlin muscled his No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry XSE ahead with the lead. With Truex being pressured by LaJoie, Larson and Ty Gibbs for the runner-up spot, Hamlin maintained the lead by nearly four-tenths of a second in front of the field that continued to jostle for spots.
By Lap 100, Hamlin was leading by half a second over a hard-charging Larson while Truex, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Chastain, Bell and Bowman were running in the top 10. Behind, Reddick was up to 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Cindric and Elliott while Briscoe, Noah Gragson, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Harrison Burton followed suit in the top 20 ahead of Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, McDowell and Stenhouse. Meanwhile, Byron was mired back in 28th behind rookie Josh Berry and Ryan Preece, Erik Jones was in 29th and Nemechek was back in 31st in front of Daniel Hemric and newcomer Derek Kraus.
Ten laps later, Larson, who reassumed the lead five laps earlier, had stretched his advantage to eight-tenths of a second over Hamlin while Busch, LaJoie and Truex were running in the top five.
Another eight laps later, a cycle of green flag pit stops slowly commenced as Wallace and Stenhouse pitted along with Blaney, Suarez, Austin Dillon, Byron, Truex, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Bowman, Logano, Cindric, Elliott, Kyle Busch and others. The leader Larson would then pit by Lap 120 along with LaJoie before Chastain, who led the previous lap, pitted under green. Amid the pit stops, Cindric, Hemric and Chastain were all penalized for speeding on pit road. With the green flag pit stops cycling through by Lap 122, Larson cycled back into the lead as he was leading by nearly half a second over Hamlin while Blaney, Busch and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five.
At the halfway mark between Laps 133 and 134, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Hamlin while third-place Busch also trailed by more than two seconds. Behind, Blaney and Ty Gibbs were running in the top five while Truex, Reddick, Logano, LaJoie and Elliott occupied the top 10 spots in front of Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Hocevar, Bell and Suarez. Meanwhile, Byron was in 17th, Nemechek was mired in 22nd, Chastain was the first competitor scored a lap down in 30th and Wallace was scored three laps down in 35th.
By Lap 150, Larson continued to stretch his advantage as he was leading by four seconds over Busch while Hamlin, Blaney and Ty Gibbs continued to run in the top five. Behind, Reddick retained sixth ahead of Truex, Logano, Elliott and LaJoie while Austin Dillon, Briscoe, Byron, Bell and Hocevar occupied the top 15 in front of Bowman, Suarez, Noah Gragson, Brad Keselowski and McDowell.
Five laps later, the caution flew after Bell, who was running 14th behind Briscoe, got loose through Turns 1 and 2 before he spun from the middle to the bottom of the track entering the backstretch. By then, Hocevar, who pitted five laps earlier due to a flat right-front tire, was mired a lap down while Derek Kraus received the free pass by being the first competitor scored a lap down ahead of Kaz Grala and Chastain.
During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Bowman exited first following a two-tire pit stop while teammate Larson, the first competitor with four fresh tires, followed suit along with Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney, Logano, Truex, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Byron. Amid the pit stops, Ty Gibbs was penalized for an uncontrolled tire violation during a slow pit service while Brad Keselowski lost a bevy of spots after he had to reverse to leave his pit stall. In addition, Kyle Busch dropped to 18th after he endured a slow pit stop to get the right front tire tightened.
With the event restarting with four laps remaining to the second stage’s conclusion, the field fanned out to multiple lanes as Bowman retained a narrow advantage over teammate Larson, Hamlin, Reddick, Blaney and Truex. Larson would then overtake Bowman through the frontstretch during the following lap as Reddick tried to follow suit in his No. 45 Nasty Beast Toyota Camry XSE. With Bowman and Reddick battling for the runner-up spot, the latter would prevail during the ensuing lap as Hamlin, Blaney and Truex would overtake Bowman on four fresh tires.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 165, Larson fended off another late charge from Reddick to capture his second consecutive Cup stage victory of the 2024 season. Reddick settled in second ahead of Hamlin, Blaney and Truex while Elliott, Austin Dillon, Bowman, Logano and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10. By then, 32 of 37 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the stage break, some led by Bowman pitted while the rest led by teammate Larson remained on the track.
With 95 laps remaining, the final stage commenced under green as Larson and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Larson muscled ahead with the lead from the inside lane while Reddick, Hamlin and Truex fanned out to three lanes while battling for second place in front of another three-wide battle that involved Blaney, Elliott and Briscoe. With Reddick prevailing in the three-wide battle for second, Larson retained the lead as Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle amid three lanes for fifth place in front of Logano and Austin Dillon. Blaney, Briscoe and Elliott continued to battle dead even amid three lanes for fifth place during the ensuing laps and in front of more on-track battles while Larson was leading by more than a second over Reddick.
With 80 laps remaining, Larson was leading by less than two seconds over Reddick while Hamlin, Truex and Briscoe were running in the top five ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott. Behind, hometown hero Noah Gragson was up in 11th ahead of Logano, Hocevar, Erik Jones and LaJoie while Bowman, Byron, Chastain, Suarez and Josh Berry occupied the top 20 in front of Todd Gilliland, Harrison Burton, Stenhouse, McDowell and Nemechek.
Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Reddick, who was slowly gaining ground on Larson as teammate Wallace, who was multiple laps down to have a lug nut cut loose from his entry, was helping Reddick gain ground on the leader, while Truex, Blaney and Hamlin were running in the top five. Behind, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Busch and Elliott were running sixth through ninth while Hocevar carved his way into the top 10 and he was running 10th ahead of a hard-charging Byron. Meanwhile, teammates Gragson and Briscoe battled for 12th while Logano and Erik Jones occupied the top 15 ahead of Chastain, LaJoie, Suarez, Bowman and Berry.
With 63 laps remaining, another cycle of green flag pit stops commenced as Briscoe pitted his No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Bowman would pit his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the following lap as Larson retained the lead by half a second over Reddick. Ty Gibbs would then pit his No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry XSE with 59 laps remaining before Logano, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin and Kyle Busch would follow suit to pit under green. The leader Larson would then pit with 56 laps remaining along with more competitors before Byron and Hocevar would pit during the following lap. Amid the pit stops, Kyle Busch was penalized for pitting outside his pit box.
With 52 laps remaining, Suarez, who led the previous four laps, pitted his No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 from the lead as McDowell and Kraus, both of whom have yet to pit, remained on the track. By then, Larson, who managed to blend back onto the track ahead of Reddick, was trying to close the gap from third place while Reddick and Blaney followed suit in the top five. McDowell, who would lead four laps, would then pit with 48 laps remaining and hand the lead to Kraus, who would be overtaken by Larson for the lead with 46 laps remaining as Kraus, who led his first two laps in the Cup Series, would then pit.
Down to the final 40 laps of the event, Larson was leading by nearly two seconds over Reddick as Blaney, Truex and Ty Gibbs trailed in the top five. Behind, Hamlin was back in sixth ahead of Logano, Bowman, Elliott and Austin Dillon while Gragson, Hocevar, Byron, Berry and Erik Jones were running in the top 15.
Seven laps later, the caution flew after LaJoie, who was running 18th, slid sideways in front of Keselowski as he spun his No. 7 USANA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 up towards the outside wall in between Turns 1 and 2 before he slid back down across the apron. During the caution period, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted. Following the pit stops, Larson retained the lead after exiting first ahead of Chastain, Reddick, Blaney, Hamlin, Logano, Elliott, Truex, Bowman and Ty Gibbs.
As the event restarted with 27 laps remaining, the field fanned out through the first two turns as Larson, who nearly slid up the track, was battling Chastain for the lead through the backstretch. Larson then managed to rocket ahead from the inside lane entering Turn 3 while Reddick was battling Hamlin for third place in front of Blaney and Truex. Chastain then tried to mount another fight and challenge Larson from the outside lane for the lead during the following lap as Hamlin joined the battle. Larson, however, cleared Chastain’s No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap as Reddick and Hamlin battled again for third place with nearly 25 laps remaining.
Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson was leading by a second over Reddick, who navigated his way past Chastain for the runner-up spot, as Blaney and Gragson were scored in the top five. Meanwhile, Hamlin slipped to seventh behind teammate Ty Gibbs while Truex, Logano and Elliott were battling in the top 10 ahead of Austin Dillon, Suarez, Keselowski, Byron and Bowman.
With 15 laps remaining, Larson stabilized his advantage to nearly a second over Reddick while Blaney and Chastain dueled for third place in front of Gragson and Ty Gibbs. Five laps later, however, Larson’s advantage dropped to four-tenths of a second over Reddick as the latter, who was running faster lap times, started to gain ground on the former for the lead. By then, Blaney was in third along with Chastain, both of whom were trailing the leaders by three seconds, while Ty Gibbs and Hamlin overtook Gragson for fifth and sixth.
With five laps remaining, Larson continued to lead by a narrow margin over Reddick as the latter continued to stalk and keep Larson within his sights around every corner and straightaway while also trying to narrow the gap.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who fended off Reddick to break his momentum during the previous lap, remained as the leader by four-tenths of a second over Reddick. With Reddick unable to regain his momentum, Larson was able to navigate his way around the Vegas circuit with the top spot and cycle back to the frontstretch to claim the checkered flag by four-tenths of a second over Reddick
With the victory, Larson notched his 24th career victory in the Cup Series and his third at Vegas as he also became the third different winner through the first three events of the 2024 Cup Series season. He also made Chevrolet three-for-three through the first three Cup events on the 2024 schedule and he delivered the 10th Vegas victory for Hendrick Motorsports as he ignites his early bid for his second title in NASCAR’s premier series.
“I knew Tyler [Reddick] was gonna be the guy to beat from the first stage,” Larson, who celebrated with his kids on the frontstretch, said on FOX. “He was really fast there. I was hoping those guys were gonna get racing a little bit longer behind me because I felt like it was gonna time out to where he was running really hard and getting the toe to catch me at the end. Thankfully, [I] was able to air-block him a couple laps and get him tight. All in all, such a great job by this HendrickCars.com Chevy team. Just their execution, pit road, restarts, all that was great. Cool to get a win here at Vegas again. Back-to-back [wins], swept all the stages again. Can’t ask for much more.”
Reddick, who finished second behind Larson during both stages and in the final running order, was left disappointed over the result and falling one spot short of capturing the first victory of the season for himself and 23XI Racing.
“Kyle [Larson] did a really good job there of pretty much taking away every option I had to close the gap,” Reddick said. “He seemed pretty good in the middle [lane] and I was obviously really good on the bottom. He just never let me have it right, so I kept trying to run higher and higher. He was running right around the middle of the racetrack there and was pretty efficient to block both lanes. Every time I got close, we were running just wide-open enough in Turn 1 and 2 that he could defend pretty well. It’s frustrating. I feel like we were never upfront really all day long until it got to the stage’s ends. We’ll continue to work on it, but good rebound for our team today.”
Blaney came home in third place followed by Chastain, who made the two fresh tires work to his advantage, and Ty Gibbs. Noah Gragson recorded a strong sixth-place result while Martin Truex Jr., Hamlin, Logano and Byron finished in the top 10.
Notably, Suarez finished 11th in front of Elliott, Keselowski, Erik Jones and rookie Carson Hocevar. In addition, Kyle Busch ended up 26th, Kraus finished 28th in his Cup Series debut and LaJoie ended up 32nd.
There were 24 lead changes for 15 different leaders. The race featured six cautions for 35 laps. In addition, 31 of 37 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2024 Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the regular-season standings by eight points over Ryan Blaney, 14 over Martin Truex Jr., 15 over William Byron and 20 over Ross Chastain and 23 over both Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott.
Results.
1. Kyle Larson, 181 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
2. Tyler Reddick, one lap led
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Ross Chastain, two laps led
5. Ty Gibbs
6. Noah Gragson
7. Martin Truex Jr., four laps led
8. Denny Hamlin, 16 laps led
9. Joey Logano, two laps led
10. William Byron, 15 laps led
11. Daniel Suarez, 15 laps led
12. Chase Elliott
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Erik Jones
15. Carson Hocevar
16. Austin Dillon
17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
18. Alex Bowman, three laps led
19. Daniel Hemric, one lap led
20. Josh Berry
21. Chase Briscoe, one lap led
22. John Hunter Nemechek
23. Ryan Preece
24. Todd Gilliland
25. Michael McDowell, four laps led
26. Kyle Busch, 18 laps led
27. Justin Haley
28. Derek Kraus, two laps led
29. Austin Cindric
30. Harrison Burton
31. Kaz Grala
32. Corey LaJoie, one lap down
33. Christopher Bell, two laps down
34. JJ Yeley, six laps down
35. Bubba Wallace, 13 laps down
36. Zane Smith, 13 laps down
37. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, two laps led
Next on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, March 10, at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
